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FILMS / REVIEWS Belgium

Review: On the Edge

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- Guérin van de Vorst and Sophie Muselle paint the sensitive and dynamic portrait of a young nursing intern who discovers the difficult reality of a psychiatry service

Review: On the Edge
Mara Taquin in On the Edge

This weekend, the film On the Edge will be screened at the Ramdam Festival in Tournai, following its world premiere at the 39th Mar del Plata Festival. It is co-written and co-directed by Guérin van de Vorst and Sophie Muselle, who collaborate together for the first time in this format. The former is known for his short films as well as his debut feature, The Faithful Son [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Guérin Van de Vorst
film profile
]
, released in 2018. The latter has a rick theatre background, having created a company gathering people with various experiences of madness and psychiatry.

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The film takes us to a formative episode in the life of Alexia (Mara Taquin). This young nursing intern arrives against her will in a psychiatry service, although she dreamt of intensive care or the emergency room. We meet her in the locker room on the first day of her internship. She’s late. Although she is very attentive to her surroundings, she comes across as rebellious, or at least defensive. In this emotional powder keg, Alexia gets closer that she should to Mila, a 20-year old patient who arrived here by mistake – or at least that’s what she claims and what Alexia is willing to believe. Despite warnings from chief nurse Joëlle, Alexia breaks the rules and develops an ambiguous relationship with Mila, triggering an attachment in the young patient that could upset an already unstable balance.

Guérin van de Vorst and Sophie Muselle choose to focus on Alexia, with a few exceptions. We are on her, with her, and her gaze guides us even when she doesn’t drive the action. We get caught up in the whirlwind of the service, the camera following Alexia on the fly during long, 360 degree takes that fluidly alternate between movement and stiller moments and allowing us to understand the feverishness and the flammable nature of psychiatry, where each patient is like a potential accident about to happen. We also grasp the fragility of a system in crisis, gripped by a lack of resources and personnel, which resorts to sometimes forced medication as a solution to structural problems. Alexia’s immaturity plays tricks on her – when she thinks she can release the pressure, reality catches up to her. Faced with these deadends, Alexia’s vocation wobbles and she considers giving up the fight…

Young Belgian actress Mara Taquin lends her enthusiasm to Alexia, an interpretation for which she won the Best Actress Award at the Mar del Plata Festival, where On the Edge also won the Best Film Award.

On the Edge was produced by Belgian outfit Wrong Men. International sales are handled by Reel Suspects.

(Translated from French)

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