ON THE ADAMANT | SUR L’ADAMANT

FRANCE, JAPAN | 2023 | COLOR | DCP | 109’ | FRENCH

In central Paris, on the Seine, lies Adamant. It’s a daily care facility for people suffering from mental illness, a facility of comfort of expression and coexistence. With a cold camera and a warm look, Philibert illuminates human temperament through the inconceivable faces of the patients. Faces exhausted, puzzled, tormented by inner suffering, ‘broken faces’, as so aptly remarks one of them. Perhaps there is a poetic sense to the fact that they nestle in a place above the water, next to us who think we stand on solid ground. Philibert brings out their drama and their passion, supports the controlled autonomy of the facility, avoids being melodramatic and skyrockets sympathy. Necessary cinema, Golden Bear at Berlin. I.D.

DIRECTOR: Nicolas Philibert
DoP: Nicolas Philibert
EDITORS: Janusz Baranek, Nicolas Philibert

NICOLAS PHILIBERT
French filmmaker, born in 1951. He studied Philosophy at the University of Grenoble but soon cinema won him over. He has been an assistant to Rene Allio before turning once and for all to Documentary. With films such as ‘In the Land of the Deaf and ‘To Be and to Have’ the benefit is clear, his mark indelible.

FILMOGRAPHY (Selected)
2023 On the Adamant
2018 Each and Every Moment
2012 La maison de la Radio
2009 Nénette
2002 To Be and To Have
1999 Who Knows?
1995 Animals
1992 In the Land of the Deaf
1990 Louvre City
1978 His Master’s Voice