Closing night of the 2014 Cannes Film Festival Critics’ Week, Hippocrates, Diary of a French Doctor is a darkly comic portrait of a Paris hospital as seen through the eyes of a young and eager medical intern, Benjamin (Vincent Lacoste, French Kissers – SFFF 2010, Jacky in the Kingdom of Women – this year at the SFFF), who begins his internship in the hospital ward run by his father (Jacques Gamblin, The Names of Love – SFFF 2011). Confident and determined that he will quickly become a successful doctor, Vincent soon realizes that the reality of the medical world is a lot grimmer than what he had imagined. Abdel (Reda Kateb, Lost River, Zero Dark Thirty, A Prophet), a foreign doctor more competent and experienced than Benjamin, but having to intern because of his immigrant status, helps him find his way.

A counterpoint to shows like Grey’s Anatomy, Hippocrates offers a realistic vision of the French public medical system, with its crippling budget cuts and supply shortages. Directed by Thomas Lilti, an M.D. himself, the film was a box-office hit in its native France and earned Reda Kateb a César for Best Supporting Actor.

Shown with L'Enfer me ment (Close Your Eyes) by Gérald Portenart