A terrific ensemble of young actors, most of them first-timers, are the life force of this unadorned, vérité-style drama from the French veteran.
By Guy Lodge
Plus IconGuy Lodge
Film Critic
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Courtesy of Venice Film Festival “A Place to Heal” is an unduly sentimental English-language title title for French writer-director Cédric Kahn’s new feature, which goes internationally by the more prosaic (if outwardly cryptic) “15/18” — referring, simply, to the age bracket of the teenage residents in the psychiatric ward where most of the drama is confined. It’s a place to be treated, certainly, but for many of these nervy, damaged adolescents, healing is hard to come by, and the film does little to soften or idealize their plight. Following the 2023 double-shot of his taut legal drama “The Goldman Case” and playful industry satire “Making Of,” Kahn’s latest finds him working in the unfussily humane mode of 2017’s “The Prayer,” keeping the filmmaking simple while counting on the vibrant spontaneity of his mostly inexperienced young ensemble for fireworks.
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