Director Nicolas Philibert said he was deeply moved by the jury’s decision to award the Berlinale’s top prize to a documentary rather than a fictional work.
“That documentary can be considered cinema in itself, touches me deeply,” he said. “For 40 years I always fought for it to be seen so much.”
Shot over three years, the film follows life in a nursery aboard The Adamant, a barge moored on the right bank of the Seine, where patients and carers interact in ways that break with what Philibert sees as the dehumanization of psychiatry .
“Patients in psychiatry are always stigmatized … and always considered through the prism of violence and I wanted to flip the cliché and show how human they are,” he said on the red carpet after his film won.
“I hope it will help to raise awareness in society.”
The festival’s Silver Bear for Best Leading Actor went to Sofia Otero, who plays an eight-year-old transgender child in 20,000 species of bees.
“It’s rare for someone to convey so much emotion but stay simple and crushing,” said jury president Kristen Stewart. “Especially in performances given to us by a child.”