Things are busy at the Paris hospital where young psychiatrist Jamal and his colleagues work. The place is run down, the staff are exhausted, budgets are constantly being slashed. You know the story, but you’ve rarely seen it conveyed as engagingly as in ‘On the Edge’, which employs a handheld camera and meaningful, artistic interventions to observe the daily routine at the psychiatric ward. The deeply sympathetic Jamal is an everyday hero with an exemplary, humanistic disposition, for whom the most important prerequisites for mental health – and for a healthy society in general – are good relationships with other people. He puts his philosophy into practice by listening patiently, giving good advice and organising theatre exercises based on Molière. Realism and idealism, however, are in balance for the young doctor, at least as long as the institutional framework holds up.

An old man, almost deaf, observing and listening to hospital patients. A 12-year old boy, with a pain-insensitive disorder, feeling like a super hero. A nurse, who lost all sense of smell, treating wounded soldiers during WWII. A mute man about to become a father. And a young lad into a coma surrounded by his owns. Five stories in one film, five characters facing their disabilities.