Floating on the Seine in central Paris is L’Adamant, a therapeutic day centre that offers creative and empathic support to psychiatric patients. It’s a resource that uses arts and craft – everything from drawing, music and film discussion to communal jam-making – as a means to anchor lives that are prone to spiralling out of control.
Être et Avoir director Nicolas Philibert’s Berlin Golden Bear-winning fly-on-the-wall documentary meets the staff and the clients, and, in its gentle and unassuming way, celebrates the space and what it offers to people in need. The film’s observational approach means that little context is provided for the techniques used here, or for the lives and circumstances of the daily visitors. But the warm, non-judgmental embrace of Philibert’s approach is profoundly affecting.
In cinemas/on Curzon Home Cinema
