Just a Breath Away

Just a Breath Away is a Canadian-French co-produced thriller film, directed by Daniel Roby and released in 2018. The film stars Romain Duris and Olga Kurylenko as Mathieu and Anna, parents trying to protect their daughter (Fantine Harduin) from a toxic gas cloud that is enveloping Paris. The film was released in France on 4 April 2018. It screened on opening night at the Fantasia International Film Festival. Plot Parisian girl Sarah is one of a group of children who has a mysterious 'total allergy' auto-immune syndrome that forces them to live in hermetically-sealed capsules, while her parents, scientists Mathieu and Anna, desperately search for a cure. Soon after Mathieu returns from Canada with news of a possible breakthrough. A while later, there is an apparent earthquake, followed by the release of a deadly gas which emerges from the ground and begins to spread through the streets, killing everyone who is caught in it and inhaling the toxic fumes. Fortunately, the gas proves to be heavier than air, and Mathieu and Anna find refuge above the mist in the top-floor apartment of their elderly neighbors, Lucien and Colette. Sarah is forced to remain in her bubble in the family's now fog-filled flat, which has now been only limited to battery power mode to keep her air filtration system operating. By holding his breath, Mathieu breaks into the apartment one floor below, knowing the occupant uses an oxygen tank. He takes the oxygen tank and mask from the neighbor's body and while gathering supplies, finds that the fog has killed the elder of the neighbor's dogs, though the puppy is unharmed.