AVANT QUE JE PARTE
2026 · 2m
Directed by Hilaci Attia
Genres: drama, essay film
Tones: contemplative, melancholic, tender
In a hospital room, Jean-Pierre faces illness; lying down, then standing before the sun, he still finds the strength to pray, to breathe, to exist.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Two minutes of a man praying in a hospital bed—this sounds like the most predictable hospice pamphlet imaginable, but Attia's refusal to sentimentalize or resolve anything actually works; the film knows exactly what it *isn't* trying to do, which is the only interesting move available.
A disciplined essay film that locates itself squarely in the tradition of durational portraiture and spiritual cinema—the economy of gesture, the measured pacing, the way light and stillness become the only arguments needed—recalls both Bresson's austerity and contemporary French essay practice without genuflecting to either.
The choice to hold on Jean-Pierre's body in transition—from horizontal to vertical—without cutting away or underlining the effort required is what makes this land; that single sustained take of standing before the sun, unrehearsed and exact, does more work than any montage of suffering ever could.