Ser y Tener

Averroès and Rosa Parks are two psychiatric units in the same network as the Adamant, the clinic in Nicolas Philibert’s film Sur l’Adamant. Here, Philibert continues to explore this topic. From individual interviews to patient/carer meetings, we find a form of psychiatry that strives to rehabilitate patients’ words. In an increasingly depleted health system, how can the forsaken find a place in society?

The Adamant is a unique day-care center. A floating structure located on the Seine, in the heart of Paris, it welcomes adults with mental disorders, offering the kind of care that grounds them in time and space and helps them recover or keep up their spirits. The management team tries to resist the deterioration and dehumanization of psychiatry as best as they can. 

Every year, thousands of students—mostly women—enroll in nursing school, where they take classes and work as interns. Throughout this intense and difficult process, they will have to acquire an enormous body of knowledge and prepare to shoulder heavy responsibilities. This documentary narrates the ups and downs of a field that will confront them with wounded human bodies and souls.