At the cinema: Averroes and Rosa Parks… Why should we see this film in the tradition of On the Adamant?

After winning the Golden Bear in Berlin for his documentary Sur l’Adamant, released in April 2023, French director Nicolas Philibert returns with Averroës and Rosa Parks for the second part of his trilogy about the patients and caregivers of a psychiatric center in Paris.

During an interview with Nicolas Philibert in 2023, the latter explained his project: “At first there was only one film: about Adamant. And along the way, two more projects saw the light of day.

Films that communicate but are independent

The film was shot at the hospital that Adamant is attached to, Esquirol Hospital in Charenton, in which I filmed conversations between patients and caregivers. We find some of the characters of Sur l’Adamant hospitalized.

And then a film that consists of home visits by caregivers, nurses who sometimes go to this or that patient, especially to help with domestic problems. When there is something in their home that doesn’t work anymore, these nurses come to help them. They are also an excuse for a little conversation and exchange.

Accordingly, there will be three films, but which will be completely independent of each other. We won’t have to watch On the Adamant for the second or third movie.

Averroes and Rosa Parks That is why there is the second part of the triptych Nicholas Philibert. The film, presented in the special category of the Berlinale in February 2024, takes place between Averroes and Rosa Parc: two departments of the Esquirol hospital, which report like Adamant to the psychiatric center of the center of Paris.

From individual interviews to “caregiver-patient” meetings, the filmmaker tries to show a certain psychiatry that still tries to welcome and restore patients’ words. Little by little each of them opens the door to his world. In an increasingly tired health care system, how can we reintegrate lonely beings into the common world?

complex grid

The director explains in the press kit: “Before I started filming Sur l’Adamant, I told myself that this day center, which is original to say the least – built on water – was a kind of autonomous island. , not folded per se, but, let’s say, a bit autarkic.

I obviously did not know that Adamant was part of a larger whole, a center in central Paris, which also has two CMPs, a mobile team and two care units, Avereros and Rosa Parks at Esquirol Hospital – formerly known as “Asile”. de Charenton” – but as if, for fear of self-disintegration, I did not want to see how interdependent these different structures were, that they created a network with it, in which patients and carers were constantly called upon. Replication, each one can “build his own map between the different points of support offered” . Subconsciously, perhaps, I needed to take Adamant out of its context, as if to pick it out better. Once I was there, I quickly realized that it had to exist behind the camera, even if only hinted at, otherwise it would falsify reality. (…)

If adamant could draw the eye, other, more classical structures were no less necessary. Two medical and psychological centers were overwhelmed with requests, you had to wait for months to get an interview. At Esquirol, Averroès and Rosa Parks were always full. Moreover, several “passengers” from Adamant, with whom I had a good relationship, remained there. (…) Averroès & Rosa Parks is a sequel to Sur l’Adamant. As if after filming in front of the stage, this time I was showing the backstage, the foundations”

If essentially the principle is the same, the form changes somewhat. Indeed, patients at Sur l’Adamant spoke directly to Nicolas Philibert on camera. Here the director instead takes interviews, he witnesses the encounters between patients and caregivers.

Thanks to these films, Nicolas Philibert highlights these patients, whom the world tries to make invisible. He also told us on this topic: “It’s as if society didn’t want to see these patients, wanted to exclude them, hide them, as if they were scary and dangerous pariahs. So, the absolute majority. These people are fragile, and when they are dangerous, because it happens, in most cases, it is against themselves.”

Averroes and Rosa Parks You can see it in theaters this Wednesday, March 20th, and the final part of the triptych “The Typewriter and Other Sources of Trouble” will be released on April 17th.