On the Adamant
PG
L'Adamant is a psychiatric day centre, set up on a barge moored on the Seine, in the heart of Paris.
Attached to a hospital, the centre welcomes outpatients and engages with them in a process of empowerment and acceptance, notably through music, painting and body expression workshops.
Filmmaker Nicolas Philibert (Être et Avoir) spent an extended amount of time on the Adamant across numerous visits, during which he gained the trust of these injured, highly medicated individuals. He was also able to get the know the many caregivers working to try resist the deterioration and dehumanisation of psychiatry as best they can.
Details
“There is a gentle and very happy sense of freedom and possibility aboard the Adamant, and there is enormous warmth, sympathy and human curiosity in this film.”
Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
“On the Adamant is most moving when it stands back, letting its most disenfranchised subjects talk, or shout, or sing.”
Guy Lodge, Variety
“What emerges is not only a depiction of psychiatric treatment administered with plenty of warmth and enthusiasm, but a portrait of several individuals who, despite their noticeable disabilities, are capable of producing original and moving works of art.”
Jordan Mintzer, The Hollywood Reporter