Averroès & Rosa Parks

The second part of a triptych that began in 2022 with On the Adamant, Averroes & Rosa Parks follows some of the same people we met during first movie, though this time while they receive more direct treatment. Using a fly-on-the-wall approach that recalls the work of Frederick Wiseman, as well as fellow Frenchman Raymond Depardon the film consists of several one-on-one or group therapy sessions, intercut with shots of the patients wandering the grounds of the facility.

Philibert has a particular gift for capturing life without seeming to interrupt it. Here, the patients speak freely and willingly to their psychiatrists as we look on, describing symptoms of depression, paranoia and other, more severe disorders. Almost all of them want to “return to the reality of life,” but they’re not all able to do it. They grasp what their problems are, sometimes quite acutely, but that doesn’t mean they can overcome them.

Location: Baia Turcească