All of a Sudden

All of a Sudden (original title Soudain) is Ryusuke Hamaguchi's first film in French. It opens on the outskirts of Paris, in a care home for people with dementia.

Marie-Lou Fontaine runs the place and wants to bring in the Humanitude method, which encourages patients to get up and walk. Her staff push back, starting with Sophie, the senior nurse.

One day Marie-Lou crosses paths with Tomoki, a young Japanese man with a developmental disability, and follows him to a park. That leads her to Mari Morisaki, a Japanese playwright who looks after him and is staging a play in Paris. After the show the two women talk, and Mari reveals she is seriously ill.

What follows is a friendship between two women from distant worlds, trading ideas about care, work and what makes a life worth living. Hamaguchi, who made Drive My Car, lets this bond unfold patiently over more than three hours. Virginie Efira and Tao Okamoto play the pair.