Guérin Van de Vorst (who notably directed the feature film The Faithful Son [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Guérin Van de Vorst – Regi…
scheda film], starring Vincent Rottiers) and Sophie Muselle are presenting their movie On the Edge [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Guérin Van de Vorst, Sophi…
scheda film] in the Brussels International Film Festival’s national competition, a work which won two awards at the Mar Del Plata International Film Festival (Best Film and Best Actress for Mara Taquin) and which tells the story of a young trainee psychiatric nurse who’s thrust into the beating heart of an institution, learning first-hand about the brutal nature of the system and the complexity of managing relationships with others in this busy environment.

Cineuropa: What would you say is at the heart of this film?
Guerin Van de Vorst: I’d say that it’s first and foremost the portrait of a young trainee nurse in a psychiatric hospital who finds herself having to fight against the medical-legal machine which she comes into conflict with, whilst also wrestling with her patients’ violence and her own tendency to act on her emotions.

How did this project come about?
Sophie Muselle: I’m a psychologist, a psychotherapist, and I direct a theatre group called L'appétit des Indigestes, which is a mix of people who’ve used psychiatric services and those who haven’t. I’ve always been interested in psychiatry and how we treat psychiatric patients. We had a mutual friend who was a mental health nurse who told us her story. We took inspiration from it.

GVdV: If we’re looking to ask questions of our society, it’s interesting to look at what goes on in psychiatric hospitals. There’s a huge number of young people suffering from mental health problems at this point in time. How are they managed? We thought it would be interesting to follow a young woman who’s having to learn the ropes. The audience sees things entirely from her perspective.

SM: We wanted to depict a young generation who are trying, who make mistakes, who start over and who never throw in the towel. We didn’t want to provide any answers, to know whether Alexia was doing things well or not. We wanted to show that she did things whole-heartedly and with total idealism.

It also raises the question: is it possible to treat people without engaging our emotions? How much of ourselves should we invest in patient care?
GVdV: That question is the basic premise of the film, what kind of distance should we adopt when we meet others and treat them, so as not to get burnt ourselves? What does therapeutic distance look like? Should it be respected? Can we really get close to people? It’s all these kinds of questions that the film asks.

But there’s also the situation which the ward Alexia’s working on has to contend with, its administrative and financial situation, the conditions hospital staff have to work under.
SM: Obviously, there aren’t sufficient resources for them to be able to work as they should. But that’s not what the film’s really about, even though lots of healthcare workers talk to us about this.

GVdV: There are definitely real funding problems, for psychiatric hospitals in particular. Even though it’s not the film’s main focus, it’s clear that it’s an everyday struggle for hospital staff to do a good job, knowing that they’re understaffed and underfunded. How do you maintain your humanity working for such a machine?

SM: You need to be able to devise a way of treating each individual patient, but that takes time, creativity, plenty of communication between staff. ..We didn’t want to preach about how things should be done. But the film does raise questions over practices.

What approach did you take to filming this portrait?
GVdV: We wanted the film to be an immersive experience, for the psychiatric hospital to be wholly seen from Alexia’s viewpoint, without leaving her side for a second. The film takes place over a relatively short period of time - just a few weeks - and it was important to us that we lived everything with her. And, also, that we gave viewers the feeling of being locked in alongside her. It’s practically a huis clos.

SM: We decided to film it in a long take for various reasons. Firstly, because long takes place actors in a fragile state of imperfection, and that’s another thing we wanted to explore in the film, how hard it is to make decisions in this environment, and, in that sense, a kind of acceptation that nobody’s perfect. We also wanted to show how differently time goes by when you’re inside a hospital, as opposed to outside of it.

What was the greatest challenge for you while making this film?
SM: What we most wanted to convey was Alexia’s humanity - her humanity and her endless struggle. Her desire to follow through on her ideals.