All of a Sudden

Based on an exchange of letters between philosopher Makiko Miyano and medical anthropologist Maho Isono, Ryûsuke Hamaguchi beautifully depicts the remarkable chance encounter in Paris of Marie-Lou, a French nursing home director and caregiver, and Mari, a Japanese theater director facing terminal cancer. As they spend time together after a performance of one of Mari’s plays and at the nursing home where Marie-Lou implements a new program of radical empathy for the patients' bodies and souls against skeptical colleagues, both connect over longing, sentimental aspirations, and the sociopolitical strains that have driven their life choices and shaped their communities. All of a Sudden isn’t just a fascinating look into our era’s anxieties and injustices but a moving testimony to the power of human empathy in an era that may make you think there is none.

2026. France/Japan/Germany/Belgium. Directed by Ryûsuke Hamaguchi. Screenplay by Hamaguchi, Léa Le Dimna; based on the book by Maho Isono, Makiko Miyano. With Virginie Efira, Tao Okamoto, Kyôzô Nagatsuka. DCP courtesy NEON. In French, Japanese; English subtitles. 196 min.

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