12 Days

One person has committed a serious crime or is suffering from delusions, while another wants to go home to commit suicide. All are involuntarily patients at a psychiatric hospital. According to legislation passed in France in 2013, if doctors want an involuntary hospitalization to be extended, it has to be approved by a judge within 12 days, and if necessary every six months. The celebrated chronicler of French society Raymond Depardon was granted a unique opportunity to film these hearings. He thus combines two subjects that he explored previously in Caught in the Acts and Urgences: judicial proceedings and psychiatry. The observation is unemotional and precise: a judge, a patient and a lawyer, three fixed camera angles, one room, and only brief glimpses outside as a means of punctuation. Despite the relatively formal nature of the conversations, it's easy to see the pain and tragedy behind the confused, rebellious or resigned faces. Most of the patients want to be discharged. The judges listen to what they have to say, but their task is only to decide whether procedures have been followed correctly.