Over the past couple of years, director Ryusuke Hamaguchi has quietly crept into the one of the top slots of filmmakers I love. His films aren’t always what I turn to when I want some instant entertainment, but as I’ve started going through his filmography, his films like ‘Drive My Car,’Evil Doesn’t Exist,’ and ‘Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy’ have consistently moved me in unexpected ways. He’s one of those filmmakers, like Hirokazu Kore-eda, that make films feel fresh and human.

Above is the first image revealed by Cinefrance from Ryusuke Hamaguchi‘s next feature film called ‘All of a Sudden.’ It’s a French production, starring Virginie Efira and Tao Okamoto, about a woman who works at a nursing home in the Paris suburbs and defies convention by adopting the “Humanitude” method despite her team’s resistance. Her encounter with a terminally ill Japanese playwright, transforms her life and together, they turn the facility into a symbol of resistance and humanity against the system’s limits.

What exactly is Humanitude? It’s a comprehensive, relationship-centered care methodology for dementia and geriatric patients, developed by Yves Gineste and Rosette Marescotti in 1979. It focuses on restoring dignity, autonomy, and humanity through the four pillars of gaze, speech, touch, and verticality.

All of a Sudden is loosely inspired by a collection of real-life letters published in the book “When Life Suddenly Takes a Turn: Twenty Letters Between a Philosopher with Terminal Cancer and a Medical Anthropologist” by Makiko Miyano and Maho Isono.

The film is set to release sometime in 2026.

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