"On the Adamant": The Golden Bear at the 29th Athens International Film Festival

The Athens International Film Festival, faithful to a tradition of recent years, presents to the Greek audience the films that have triumphed in the world's major film festivals.

After the screening of the captivating "Anatomy of a Fall" by Justine Triet, winner of the Palme d'Or at the recent Cannes Film Festival, we are pleased to announce Nicolas Filibert's "On the Adamant", the documentary that won the Golden Bear, the grand prize of this year's Berlin Film Festival, in the programme of the 29th Athens International Film Festival.

In the center of Paris, on the Seine, there is the Adamant. A day-care centre for sufferers of mental illness, a warmth of expression and coexistence. With a cold camera and a fervent gaze, Nicolas Filibère traces the human temperament through the elusive physiognomies of the patients. Faces deprived, wondering, occupied by an inner torment, "faces fractured", as one of them competently mentions.

It is perhaps poetically plausible that they all nest daily in a place on the water, next to us who believe the earth is solid at our feet. Filibère brings out their drama and passion, advocates controlled self-governance of structure, eschews melodrama, and launches into compassion. With previous works such as "The Land of the Deaf" and "I Am and I Have," his cinematic edge is clear and his imprint indelible.

"On the Adamant" will be released in theaters soon by Cinobo.

The 29th Athens International Film Festival will take place from September 27th to October 9th, 2023.