Sauver ou périr

If the story depicted in "Through the Fire" was done before then I'm completely unaware. To me it feels completely untold yet it's something that while real as something that can (and might had) happened, it's one of those things most of us don't imagine or think about it. What happens when a man whose job is to save lives from danger and from harm ends up on the other side of the situation? How does one cope with so many difficulties and above all the idea of not being able to do what you always dreamt of doing and now has to be a patient soul who needs constant care?

Our hero in this journey is a hard-working fireman (Pierre Niney), at the top of his game after being recently promoted, who suffers an accident during a fire and now needs to go through a lenghty recovery process and find a new life meaning without the work that he loves. Beyond treating his extensive burns, he also needs some deep inner healing because depression and self-loathing hits him hard with his new condition, to the point he even doubts that his wife still loves him.

It is a quite sad story but never fully depressive neither falls for sentimentality. It's well told, balanced and gripping all the way and viewers immerse themselves in the story, the characters, the situations and the emotios. I was easily conquered with this one. And once again, a knockout performance by Pierre Niney who dedicated himself to such a physically demanding role - the first half hour is all about him being the great firefighter in action, the other half is all through great makeup effects of burns and his painful ordeals at the hospital. He was amazing all the way.

I'm not sure why the director decided to put a disclaimer at the beginning telling about this being a real story and later on at the final credits it's said that it was an original idea. No need for that, since one could easily imagine those things happening to firefighters because it happens, it's part of their jobs to take risks and accidents happen. It just leaves people curious in researching for the actual case when there was none told. But, all that matters is that he had a great story to tell and he told them in a very great manner. 10/10.