(Berlin) A documentary on psychiatry by Frenchman Nicolas Philibert won the Golden Bear on Saturday at the Berlinale, which awarded its interpretation prize to a Spanish girl aged only 8, for a film about childhood and transidentity.
Two decades after the immense success of To be and to Havethe 72-year-old documentary filmmaker leaves school for this dive into the psychiatric universe, the first film of a trilogy on this subject.
Without voiceover, scrutinizing the faces of the patients in this unique structure where they are given great freedom, On the Adamant shows the boundary that ends up blurring between caregivers and patients.
“The clichés are tenacious, the film tries to unravel them (but) there is a long way to go,” he said.
We can see patients participating in therapeutic or artistic workshops, but also forgetting their sick status to build a common life, helping for example to control the budget.
“The craziest people are not the ones you think,” added the director of this long-term documentary.
Documentaries are regularly selected in major international film competitions, but rarely win awards. Last year, the Venice Film Festival awarded its Golden Lion to a film on the opiate crisis in the United States, directed by Laura Poitras (All the beauty and the bloodshed).
This prize “is a recognition of documentary films, my type of art”, declared Nicolas Philibert, hoping that it will help other documentary filmmakers to develop their projects.
“This festival is there to push the limits,” justified American actress Kristen Stewart, who at 32 was the youngest president of the jury in the history of the festival. “The invisible parameters forged by industry and academism about what a movie is don’t stand a chance with this one,” she added.
On the Adamant released on April 19 in France.
“He is a humanist author who is honored. And also its heroes, the patients and caregivers of the psychiatric world. A story of humanity and commitment, ”welcomed French President Emmanuel Macron in a tweet on Saturday evening.
Another Frenchman, Philippe Garrel, 74, received the Silver Bear for best director for The Big Carta film that looks like an artistic testament shot with his children.
Childhood and transidentity
The jury, which also included the former holders of the Golden Bear Radu Jude and Carla Simon, or the Franco-Iranian actress Golshifteh Farahani, also rewarded the performance of an 8-year-old girl, the Spaniard Sofia Otera , for his role in 20,000 species of bees.
The budding actress received, with tears in her eyes, the prize for best interpretation, which is gender neutral and replaces in Berlin that of best actor or best actress.
In the film, signed by the Spaniard Estíbaliz Urresola, she plays a nine-year-old child, born a boy and who considers himself a girl. The question of gender and transidentity, which more and more filmmakers are looking into, was present as never before in the awards.
Austrian trans actress Thea Ehre received the Supporting Character Award for her role in Till The End of The Nightand the thinker Paul B. Preciado, a key figure on these issues, was rewarded in the parallel sections for his first film (Orlando, my political biography).
Beyond the competition, this 73e edition allowed the Berlinale to return to normality, after the restrictions linked to the COVID-19, and saw a number of celebrities return.
We were able to see Sean Penn, who came to present a documentary on his wanderings in Ukraine at war, the singer Bono and the legendary director Steven Spielberg, who received an honorary Golden Bear.