Fabrice Toussaint (Denis Podalydès) is a respected philosopher known to the general public thanks to a book he wrote some 20 years earlier on the elderly and their role in society, . Given the success of the first edition, Toussaint is seriously considering printing an updated second edition, but two unforeseen events modify his decisions.  During a routine check-up, he discovers he has a very small brain tumour, which is currently inactive but needs to be kept under control, and on the same occasion, he meets Dr. Augustine Masset (Kad Merad) the head of the palliative care unit of  the hospital. An avid reader and admirer of Toussaint’s works, Masset is delighted to show him his unit and guide the philosopher to the discovery of what happens in that little stretch of life between the end of treatment and death. Exactly the period that doctors ignore because they have locked themselves into the idea of all-or-nothing, cure-at-all-costs.  For them, ‘death’ means only failure of treatment, not an inevitable event towards which it is their duty to accompany the patient as best as they can. Masset, deeply shaken by his trip to Africa, during which he discovered that there the elderly and the sick continue to be part of the community until the end, he returned to France determined to change things even in French society and transform those days populated either by over-medication or repression or abandonment into real life. Thanks to the outstanding acting performance of Podalydes and Merad, and the precious contribution of exceptional guest stars: Marilyne Canto, Charlotte Rampling, Karin Viard, Hiam Abbas, Agathe Bonitzer, Ángela Molina, Françoise Lebrun, Gavras succeeds in creating a film that is emotional and mellow, intelligent and important. And it is absolutely clear what Gavras wishes for his audience: that they have the strength of mind to give a more mature and conscious answer than the one given by Toussaint: ‘Do you ever think about your death?’ ‘Sometimes, but without insisting’.Teresa Cavina