Wonderful

Benoit Cohen’s Wonderful, with his hymn to life, delicately and lucidly stages an exploration of personal responsibility, and family choices about how people can “exit life” today.

Ten years have passed since Benoit Cohen's father's death, but the circumstances of his passing remain deeply painful and complicated. Wonderful is a touching and insightful exploration of some of the hardest questions about life, death, family, and responsibility. Cohen knew he would have to tell his family's story, which took place in Paris, in conjunction with his mother and two brothers. After a devastating cancer diagnosis, his father was terrified of death. His family sought to prevent him from undue suffering or having their actions arouse suspicion. His father's lucidly tenacious, but fundamentally irrational self-denial in the face of a terminal diagnosis, reveals a revelatory chapter in one family's experience with grief, loss, death and dying. With respect and love, Benoit and his family are determined to find a way to help his father depart with dignity and ease. But they come up against the frustrations of a health care system in which palliative care can be difficult to access or is reserved for only a "fortunate" few. Personal choices regarding "right-to-die" issues are legally sanctioned in many countries, whereas in others they are met with the specter of criminality. As they discover, there are few legal options (if any) to explore the path to peaceful exit and relief.

Born in 1969, Benoit Cohen, filmmaker and writer, now lives in Paris. After directing several films, including Our Beloved Children (2003) and You Will Be a Man (2013), he also published Yellow Cab (2017), Mohammad, My Mother and Me, which was adapted into a film Ma France à moi (2023).