Le Théâtre des Opérations (The Operating Theater) is a film about the initiation of a trainee surgeon in a surgical unit. Following the various stages of his initiation allows us to enter a strange and foreign world, where ordinary people only pass through.

The unit is a microcosm hidden within the hospital machine where surgeons, anaesthesiologists, operating-room nurses, nurses and nursing aids work each day to repair and save lives. The stories that are written here show mankind’s ingenuity, its ambitions, pettiness, generosity, fears, and black humor. In the unit, vital things, the stuff of life, constantly hang in the balance.

While describing the daily life of an intern, the film throws light on the different issues that interweave and clash in the emergency room.