Return To Normandie (France | 2006 | 113' | 35mm | Color | French | with Arabic Subtitles) Director: Nicolas Philibert Line Producer: Serge Lalou, Gille Sandoz Cinematography: Katell Djian, Nicolas Philibert Editor: Nicolas Philibert Sound: Yolande Decarsin Original Music: André Giroud A Co-Production of: Les Films d›Ici, Maïa Films & ARTE France Cinéma

During the summer of 1995, faithful to what has now become a tradition, residents and staff at the La Borde psychiatric clinic get together to put on the play that they will perform on 15 August. During rehearsals, the film retraces the ups and downs of this adventure. But over and above the theatre, it describes life at La Borde, everyday life, time passing, trivial goings-on, loneliness and tiredness, as well as the moments of merriment, laughter, and wit peculiar to certain residents, and the close attention which people pay to one another. Filmmaker will be present.

 

Nicolas Philibert

Nicolas Philibert was born in 1951 in Nancy (France). After studying philosophy, he turned to film and became an assistant director, notably for René Allio, Alain Tanner and Claude Goretta.In 1978, with Gérard Mordillat, he co-directed his first documentary feature, His Master›s Voice (La voix de son maître) in which a dozen bosses of leading industrial groups talk about control, hierarchy and power, gradually sketching out the image of a future world ruled by the financial sector…From 1985 to 1987, Nicolas Philibert shot various mountaineering and sports adventure films for television (Christophe, Trilogy for One Man, Go For It, Lapébie!, Baquet’s Come Back) then started directing documentary features that would all obtain a theatrical release: Louvre City (La ville Louvre, 1990), In the Land of the Deaf (Le pays des sourds, 1992), Animals (Un animal, des animaux, 1995), Every Little Thing (La Moindre des choses, 1996), at the La Borde psychiatric clinic, as well as a film essay pitched between documentary and fiction, with the students of the school of the Strasbourg National Theatre.: Who Knows? (Qui sait ?, 1998)In 2001, he directed To Be and to Have (Etre et avoir), about daily life in a «single class» school in a mountain village in the heart of the Massif Central (France). Screened as part of the Official Selection at the 2002 Cannes Festival, Prix Louis Delluc 2002, the film was a huge success in France and around forty other countries.In his most recent film, Back to Normandy (Retour en Normandie, 2007), he returned to the settings of I, Pierre Rivère, Having Slaughtered My Mother, My Sister and My Brother… by René Allio, the director who allowed him to take his first steps in film.