Directed by Arnaud Robert, Paolo Woods • Documentary • 2022 • 94 minutes
The universal quest for happiness is one of the human invariants. The pharmaceutical industry is developing entire classes of drugs (anxiolytics, antidepressants, sleeping pills, opioids) that promise their consumers, if not happiness, at least some peace.
HAPPY PILLS explores the industrial response to an existential quest and our intimate relationship to drugs. In Switzerland, Israel, France, Peru, Niger or the United States, the documentary follows six characters who each need chemistry to lead what they see as a better life. In the end, it is our consumer society and the Eldorado of prescription joy that HAPPY PILLS questions.
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