First noticed in 2021 with her first feature, Playground [+lee también:
crítica
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entrevista: Laura Wandel
ficha de la película], Laura Wandel's Adam's Sake [+lee también:
crítica
tráiler
entrevista: Laura Wandel
ficha de la película], which opened Critics' Week at the 78th Cannes Film Festival, takes a look at another microcosm, the hospital, in a style that is as realistic and immersive as ever.

Cineuropa: Why did you choose this specific world of hospitals?
Laura Wandel: I've always been attracted to this world, it's one that I came into contact with quite a lot as a child because my mother worked in a hospital. It's a place that has always fascinated me, because it encompasses the whole of society, it really is a microcosm. There's also a hierarchical aspect that creates systemic links, which is very interesting from a narrative point of view, it raises moral questions, it raises the issue of limits. I've also noticed that the social aspect is almost as important as the medical, and the extent to which the child's recovery depends on the relationship with the parent. The question of empathy, care and treatment is at the heart of the film. The nursing staff are heroes, and I find the lack of resources they have appalling, so I also wanted it to be a tribute.

How did you go about imagining the characters in this hospital?
I drew a lot of my inspiration from what I'd observed on various immersion trips. The question that obsessed me was: how do we take care of each other? How do we do that when we're working to a very tight schedule, often dictated by profitability? Through the character of Lucie, I wanted to convey the pressure that nursing staff can be under, and in particular the lack of resources they have to deal with.

For Lucie, her work is a priesthood. Of course, I couldn't help thinking of Rosetta; the Dardenne brothers said of her that she was like a little bull, and I really like that image. We film Lucie a lot from the back, her shoulders, because I wanted us to feel the weight that weighs on her. She's someone who moves forward in spite of everything, but who is constantly held back in what she wants to do. I wanted to tell the story of the moment when she tips over the edge, making it clear that it's an accumulation of things. This is certainly not the first difficult case she has encountered. She has to turn a corner, rebel against a system that no longer works.

I didn't want to stigmatise Rebecca, and I was careful not to give any details about the diet she puts her son on. Above all, I wanted to convey her fragility. When the paediatrician I met told me this story, I really wondered how it could have come to this. It must have been the distress of all those mothers who are constantly subjected to injunctions, often contradictory, and who at some point go off the rails. Society has a responsibility in this respect.

Whereas Playground took place over time, this new film is set in an emergency, almost real time. How did you manage this paradigm change in time?
Initially, it wasn't written like that. But it seemed to me the most appropriate way to tell the story, to tighten up the time, to really convey the rhythm and pace of the nurses' work. Even the way we worked was tight, in fact. We had a very tight schedule, we worked six days out of seven, often locked in the same place, and we shot two sequences a day. This put us into a kind of scene exhaustion, and I feel that this energy comes through in the images.

A few words about your actresses?
From the start, I had Léa Drucker in mind. I often write for actors. She has something rare. A great strength, and behind this apparent coldness you can feel a great fragility. It's wonderful to catch a glimpse of. She gave everything in the film, beyond my expectations. She never gave up, even though the conditions weren't always easy. We immersed ourselves in the film together. On the set, she was coached in the nursing gestures. As for Anamaria Vartolomei, she has a certain tenacity as well as fragility, and above all, she could bring something opaque to the table, which was very important to me.