The Crack in the Head, Crack in the Sky

A psychiatric ward in a Paris suburb is threatened with closure. Director Mehran Tamadon has his own ideas about how daily life there could be organized differently. Could the patients take over some of the staff’s tasks? Over the past ten years, he has met many different people there—people with broken hearts and minds, each with their own desires, delusions, and fears.

Tamadon makes his presence clearly felt, and he is given the freedom to intervene directly. When a patient takes on the role of therapist, the director simply watches, enjoying what unfolds. It becomes apparent just how hard it is for the patients to distinguish between role-play and reality.

The interaction between the filmmaker and the ward, including the medical staff, is friendly and relaxed—sometimes funny, sometimes challenging, but always compelling. The trust patiently built up over time pays off. But when Tamadon proposes an experiment to gradually reduce the use of sedatives, the head of the ward draws a line. Even so, it leads to remarkably open conversations about how to prevent dangerous situations during a psychotic episode.