Festivals - The American French Film Festival 2025 : On ira – A Moving Journey of Love, Dignity, and Farewell

By Mulder, Los Angeles, Hollywood, Directors Guild of America Theatre, 1er novembre 2025, 01 november 0002 to 01 november 2025

Under the soft Californian light of the Directors Guild of America Theatre, the U.S. premiere of On ira—released in France as Bon Voyage Marie—stood out as one of the most touching moments of The American French Film Festival 2025. The screening took place on November 1 at the Renoir Theater, followed by a heartfelt conversation with the film’s writer and director, Enya Baroux, who appeared visibly moved by the warm Los Angeles audience that greeted her debut feature. The film, which had already made a strong impression at the Festival international du film de comédie de l’Alpe d’Huez earlier in the year, continues to travel, much like its own characters, through emotions and borders alike.

On ira tells the story of Marie, an 80-year-old woman played with immense tenderness by Hélène Vincent, who faces a terminal stage-four cancer. Tired of suffering, she decides to end her life with dignity through assisted suicide—something forbidden in France but permitted in Switzerland. Unable to tell her immature and penniless son Bruno, and her teenage granddaughter Anna, she invents a story about retrieving a mysterious inheritance from a Swiss bank. What follows is an improbable and deeply human road trip aboard a creaky family camper van, joined by Rudy, a caregiver played by David Ayala, who becomes a reluctant accomplice in this secret journey. Even Rudy’s pet rat, Lennon, adds a surreal and oddly comforting touch to this tender odyssey of farewells and self-discovery.

Behind the camera, Enya Baroux crafts a delicate balance between laughter and sorrow, realism and poetry. The film’s authenticity is no coincidence: the story is inspired by the true life of Baroux’s grandmother, to whom she pays loving tribute. This autobiographical dimension gives the narrative a raw honesty, anchored in genuine family emotions rather than melodrama. Baroux’s co-writers, Martin Darondeau and Philippe Barrière, help her shape a script that embraces both absurdity and grace, proving that facing death can sometimes reveal the most vital parts of living.

At Alpe d’Huez, where On ira premiered in January 2025, the audience’s reaction confirmed the film’s emotional resonance. The screening reportedly ended with a long standing ovation, with Hélène Vincent and Juliette Gasquet—who plays Anna—both receiving the Festival’s Best Actress Award. The chemistry between these two generations of actresses forms the film’s emotional core: Hélène Vincent, known for her quiet dignity and nuanced presence, delivers one of her most moving performances, while Juliette Gasquet, a revelation of the film, brings raw energy and youthful vulnerability to the screen. In interviews, Enya Baroux revealed that she had long imagined another actress for the role before being “astonished” by Gasquet’s authenticity during auditions.

The film’s visual and emotional texture owes much to Hugo Paturel’s cinematography, which captures the luminous simplicity of Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur before the journey crosses into Switzerland’s subdued tones. The editing by Baptiste Ribrault sustains the story’s rhythm with natural ease, allowing moments of silence and stillness to breathe between bursts of laughter and tension. The music by Brazilian cellist and composer Dom La Nena, along with a haunting song performed by Barbara Pravi, underscores the film’s bittersweet tone. Their collaboration adds an intimate layer to the narrative—melancholic but never despairing, like a final lullaby for a woman reclaiming her agency.

Produced by Nathalie Algazi, Martin Darondeau, Yves Darondeau, and Emmanuel Priou, and backed by Bonne Pioche, Carnaval Productions, UMedia, and Zinc, On ira illustrates the new vitality of French cinema’s social comedies—films that blend humor with existential reflection. Here, the subject of assisted dying is neither treated with sensationalism nor moral dogma; it’s explored through the prism of family love, miscommunication, and the clumsy tenderness that defines generations trying to understand one another.

The screening at The American French Film Festival 2025 reminded audiences why On ira matters. Beyond the laughter, beyond the tears, it is a film about courage—the courage to speak truth in a society that often silences aging and suffering, the courage to love without judgment, and the courage of a filmmaker who dares to turn personal pain into art. For Enya Baroux, this debut marks not just the birth of a promising career, but the transmission of a memory, a gesture of gratitude passed from grandmother to granddaughter, and now, from screen to spectator.

As the lights rose in the DGA Renoir Theater and Enya Baroux took the stage for her post-screening conversation, the audience’s reaction mirrored that first ovation in the Alps—an atmosphere of warmth, silence, and quiet admiration. In that moment, On ira had done what all great cinema aspires to do: carry us somewhere else, only to bring us closer to ourselves

Synopsis : 
Marie, 80, is fed up with her illness. She has a plan: to go to Switzerland to end her life. But when she tries to tell Bruno, her irresponsible son, and Anna, her teenage granddaughter in crisis, she panics and invents a huge lie. Pretending she has a mysterious inheritance to collect from a Swiss bank, she suggests they all take a trip together. Rudy, a caregiver she met the day before, unwittingly becomes complicit in this charade and takes the wheel of the old family camper van, driving the family on an unexpected journey.

On ira
Directed by Enya Baroux
Written by Enya Baroux, Martin Darondeau, Philippe Barrière
Produced by Nathalie Algazi, Martin Darondeau, Yves Darondeau, Emmanuel Priou
Starring  Hélène Vincent, Pierre Lottin, David Ayala, Juliette Gasquet , Gabin Visona, Henock Cortes, Brigitte Aubry, Jeanne Arènes, Nicolas Lumbreras, Ariane Mourier, Fannie Outeiro, Martin Darondeau
Cinematography : Hugo Paturel
Edited by Baptiste Ribrault
Music by Dom La Nena
Production companies : Bonne Pioche, Carnaval Productions, UMedia, Zinc
Distributed by Zinc (France)
Release dates :  January 17, 2025 (Festival de l'Alpe d'Huez), March 12, 2025 (France)
Running time : 97 minutes

Photos and video : Sophie Janinet / Mulderville