The film is a portrait of the L'Adamant Day Center in Paris. This is a floating building located at the foot of the Charles de Gaulle Bridge on the right bank of the Seine. The unique daycare center welcomes adults with mental disorders from the first four arrondissements of Paris. It offers patients a daily routine that is structured in terms of time and space and helps them to regain their footing in everyday life with therapeutic workshops and psychosocial rehabilitation support. The Adamant team consists of psychiatrists, psychologists, nurses, occupational therapists, specialist educators, psychomotor specialists, care coordinators, hospital staff, and various external artists and art therapists.
The Adamant is a most admirable philosophy and program in action by France. But the accolades deserved by the documentarian's choice of study does not equate to accolades for their work. Audiences should not confuse the two. Nicolas Philibert had nothing to do with establishing or even operating The Adamant. He was there, filming it and its people is all.
Uneven. Many slow, even boring lulls, but also some undoubtedly intriguing scenes and sensitive portrayals of troubled minds.
Like in real life, I like my connections in depth. While trying to do the "unintrusive documentation" shtick has its purposes, some stories, like this one, deserve something more personal and less removed. It almost feels uncompassionate and neglectful at times, selectively skimming their stories from behind an invisible wall, randomly inserting interrogations in the disconcerting form of an unidentified voice asking interview questions.
Mad respect for those involved in the day to say operations on this floating refuge, as well as to the courageous individuals who agreed to be documented for surviving another day in the endless battle for meaningful life.
