[In Eng.] These Heartbreaking Movies About Diseases

Among the numerous movies presented at the FIF this year, two of them offer poignant stories about diseases that will leave you heartbroken and have you cry your eyes out. While Supa Modo, by Likarion Wainnaina leads us to Kenya, telling the story of Jo, this little girl in a hospital who wants so hard to be a superhero, Babytheeth, by Shannon Murphy, plunges us in the first love story of Milla, an ill teenager. These two movies made me think about all the masterpieces about diseases that made me sob my heart out, and here is my top 5.

Heartbreaking movie n°5. The Intouchables. If this movie is full of jokes and fun, it is also one of the saddest movies about diseases I’ve ever seen. François Cluzet, who plays Philippe, is incredibly affecting, and the relationship he creates with Driss (Omar Sy), is so strong it is beautiful. If all is well that ends well, Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano wrote a sensitive movie that deserves its accolades.

Heartbreaking movie n°4. Adapted from the book of the same title, One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, made by Milos Forman in 1975, is set in a psychiatric hospital. If the movie, like the book, is filled with mockery and with some characters overwhelmed with anger and hate, there is a sadness (and a madness) present in the background during the whole film – especially when we realize that One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest wasn’t a satire of the psychiatric hospital during the 20th century.

Heartbreaking movie n°3. Even if some of you didn’t see or read The Fault in Our Stars, you probably have heard of it. The book, written by John Green, was adapted by Josh Boone, starring Shailene Woodley and Angel Esgort. Hazel is a young girl who has thyroid cancer, and Gus is a young man who has bone cancer. The love story between the two is sweet and pure, but their cancer is like a sword of Damocles hanging over their head; and even if I rationally know that can end well, I still needed a bunch of Kleenex at the end.

Heartbreaking movie n°2. Supa Modo is one of the gems of the FIF. This movie is a treasure of hope, laughs, sadness and despair, all of these compressed in 74 minutes. Sometimes, we forget about Jo’s disease because she’s so cheerful that something that bad cannot happen to her, but then, she coughs, and all our joy disappears instantaneously. The movie may be sad, but there is this strength that makes us believe everything is possible.

Heartbreaking movie n°1. All the previous movies made me cry, but the one that broke my heart into a trillion pieces is undoubtedly BPM. Made by Robin Campillo, BPM is the story of Nathan and Sean, who is HIV-positive. But even with his disease, Sean embraces life to the fullest, and I was blown away by his resolve. This movie is an emotional roller-coaster and changed my vision of life forever.

Mathilde Rozec