the documentary “Sur l’Adamant” by Frenchman Nicolas Philibert wins the Golden Bear

Nineteen films for a single Golden Bear. And it is a French documentary that won the most prestigious award at the Berlin Film Festival. On the Adamant of the French Nicolas Philibert, on a barge which accommodates people suffering from mental disorders in Paris, won the Golden Bear, Saturday, February 25, in Berlin.

Two decades after the immense success of To be and to Have, Nicolas Philibert leaves the benches of the school for this dive into the psychiatric universe, the first film of a trilogy on this subject. In his film, the documentary maker’s team boards the barge and goes to meet the patients and caregivers who “try to resist as much as they can the decay and dehumanization of psychiatry”according to the film’s synopsis.

“I tried to reverse the image that we always have of crazy people, so discriminating”said Nicolas Philibert, reading a small speech prepared in English after receiving his award. “I want us to be able, if we are not able to identify with them, at least recognize what unites us beyond our differences, something like a common humanity”he added. “As we all know, the craziest people are not the ones we believe”he concluded to thunderous applause.

Frenchman Philippe Garrel best director

Another Frenchman was rewarded at the 73rd Berlinale in Berlin. Philippe Garrel received the Silver Bear for Best Director for The Big Cart, a film shot with his children. The 74-year-old filmmaker swears he did not want to make a “self-fiction” with The Big Carteven if the film almost transparently stages his own family and questions the idea of ​​artistic heritage and success.

“Long live the Iranian revolution”declared this heir to the New Wave when receiving his award, which he also dedicated “to Jean-Luc Godard, who is (…) a very great master, who is no longer of this world”died in September.