One young man looks fixedly below the cameras eyeline as he describes how other peoples noise upsets him.
Lucky he didnt have a gun at the time, he reflects.
So one is autistic, one is delusional, the last one is paranoid.
‘On the Adamant’Berlin Film Festival
Maybe, maybe not.
Philibert doesnt give diagnoses or assign labels.
Why would he, when the patients have their own, much more earthy descriptions of their afflictions?
If I didnt have my meds.
I start raving, says Francois, I think Im Jesus surrounded by little birds.
He has been sick, he says, since he was 18.
And Im sick now, he says firmly.
A melancholy African woman recalls her son being put into foster care when he was 5.
He is now 16.
She visits him with a caseworker once a month.
Things are better now, she says.
At first, when I went to see him, I couldnt utter a word.
Balancing these accounts takes time and often argument, but time is the one thing everyone here has.
Poetry is definitely top of the pops on the good ship Adamant.
And of course, he wants to engage us.
You wish all of them and their lovely wooden boat the very best of luck.
But, in the end, I was relieved when I realized wed reached the final stop.
I was looking forward to getting off.
