On the Adamant

The warm and compassionate observation of the festival opening film "On the Adamant" leads us into the theme of the 10th Riga Pasaules Film Festival that will look into what it means to make a film from a position of Love.

The Adamant is a unique day care centre: it is a floating structure. Located on the Seine in the heart of Paris, it welcomes adults suffering from mental disorders, offering them care and keep up their spirits. The design makes it into an art studio, a cultural centre with automatic windows that let in the daylight every morning.

The team running it is one of those that try to resist the deterioration and dehumanization of psychiatry as best it can. The personnel offers counselling and art therapy through music, painting, craft, literature and cinema. There is a cafe and Adamant hosts its own annual film festival for which the patients choose the films. The film invites us to board it and meet the patients and caregivers who invent its life day to day.

Reknown French documentary filmmaker Nicolas Philibert was the surprise winner of the Golden Bear at this year’s Berlin Film Festival.