On the Frontlines of Care

Overview

In the context of the global health crisis, we tried to understand how the French public hospital system operated and, above all, how it held up when it was already in crisis. We filmed in immersion for several weeks, day and night, in the largest hospital in Europe, the Pitié-Salpêtrière, in the medical intensive care unit located in the Eole building. Who are beyond their function, these men and women who make up the nursing and non-healthcare staff: doctors, nurses, nurses' assistants, health managers, interns, administrative and technical staff...? This film gives a voice to the invisible people in the hospital, it shows the daily fight against illness and death, but it also tells of the joys, the internal debates on the complex and daily issue of aggressive treatment. It is the story of a human adventure at the heart of this micro-society that is the hospital.