The Untouchable

In Paris one night, a burst of adrenaline and danger sets the stage for a story that unfolds as a memory told in flashback. Driss, behind the wheel of Philippe’s Maserati Quattroporte, pushes the limits of speed as blue lights chase them through the city’s streets. Cornered until it seems there’s no escape, Driss insists that Philippe, a wealthy quadriplegic, must reach a hospital immediately. Philippe pretends to have a seizure, fooling the pursuing officers and earning just enough time for them to slip away. The hospital scene closes the chase, and Driss drives off, leaving the score settled in a moment of tense relief.

From that moment the narrative turns inward, inviting us into the delicate, often humorous, almost always human orbit around Philippe’s life. The film then unfolds as a retrospective look at the unlikely friendship between two men who come from vastly different worlds. Philippe lives in a grand hôtel particulier, surrounded by riches and refined routines, while his new caregiver, Driss, arrives with no intention of conforming to expectations. He comes to interview for a live-in position, his mind set more on the signature that proves he was rejected than on any job. Yet a different reality takes shape: the next day Philippe’s aide Yvonne greets him and declares that he has the job on a trial basis.

What follows is a study in contrasts and growing trust. Driss, initially uninterested and untrained, learns to attend to Philippe’s needs with a practical, sometimes unorthodox approach. He becomes the person who does not see Philippe with pity, and that simple stance gradually erodes the walls between employer and caregiver. As Driss settles into the routine, he learns the true extent of Philippe’s disability and the complex reality of daily life that Philippe navigates with quiet dignity. A friend of Philippe’s bluntly reveals Driss’s six-month imprisonment for robbery, but Philippe rejects such warnings, signaling that loyalty matters more than past mistakes. He places his faith in Driss, valuing his honesty and the fact that he treats Philippe as a person rather than a condition to be pitied.

Clarity about Philippe’s past comes into sharper relief: his disability stems from a paragliding accident, and his wife died without bearing children. With Driss by his side, Philippe begins to reorganize his private world. Driss helps him manage the home, the routine, and the people in his orbit, including his adopted daughter Elisa, while a gentle, if sometimes bumpy, path toward reconciling independence and care unfolds. In these scenes the film gently explores how people discover new passions; Driss, seemingly out of his depth, finds himself drawn to modern art, opera, and even painting. The cultural discoveries enrich Philippe’s life as well, widening the emotional landscape of their relationship. For a birthday, a private classical music concert fills Philippe’s living room, a moment that blends refinement with a sense of warmth and possibility. Philippe shares his knowledge of famous pieces, while Driss, with a candid ear, recognizes them in his own way—sometimes as commercial tunes or cartoon melodies—yet the exchange becomes a bridge between worlds.

A softer thread threads through the story: a purely epistolary relationship Philippe maintains with a woman named Eléonore, who lives in Dunkirk. Driss encourages Philippe to pursue this connection, nudging him toward contact and even a phone call, while Philippe’s hesitation grows as he contemplates how Eléonore will react to his disability. A tentative plan to meet is balanced by a safer option: Philippe considers sending a photo of himself as he is now, but he hesitates and asks Yvonne to share a past image instead. A date is set in motion, yet the nerve-wracking moment arrives when Philippe is too afraid to meet Eléonore in person, and he ends up leaving the scene with Yvonne. This moment, however, becomes a turning point, as Philippe extends an invitation through Driss to share a more daring adventure: a weekend paragliding trip in the Alps aboard a Dassault Falcon 900 private jet.

The rhythm of the story shifts again when Driss’s cousin Adama arrives, caught up in trouble with a local gang. Driss goes to fetch him at the mansion, listening in as Philippe hears his need to support his family and ultimately decides that Driss should leave the job for the moment. The realization that Driss’s world outside the mansion matters as much as the one inside it prompts Philippe to release him, suggesting that a caregiver’s life may not be defined solely by pushing a wheelchair. Driss returns home, and new carers take over, yet Philippe’s mood remains unsettled—he grows a beard, his health feels fragile, and his spirits dip. Alarmed, Yvonne calls Driss back into the fold.

When Driss returns, he drives Philippe along the coast to a seaside restaurant in Cabourg. The day unfolds with a quiet, cinematic cadence as Philippe prepares for a potential lunch with Eléonore. Driss, stepping away for a moment, signals a farewell before Philippe and Eléonore’s paths converge. The sight of Eléonore arriving outside the restaurant, paired with Philippe’s hopeful gaze through the window, crystallizes the film’s intimate balance between chance, courage, and companionship. Driss’s departing smile as he walks away underscores the enduring bond that forms between them.

The film closes with a poignant, almost documentary-like echo: it returns to the real-life origins of Philippe Pozzo di Borgo and Abdel Sellou, the men who inspired the story. The final images linger on a hillside, recalling the film’s earliest paragliding sequence and affirming that, beyond any narrative arc, the two men remained close friends to this day. The closing caption makes the affirmation concrete, grounding the film in a true-life friendship that transcends circumstance and preconception.

Last Updated: October 09, 2025 at 16:32