Over 40,000 patients in French psychiatric hospitals died during the war years, 1939 to 1945. However, one facility avoided this catastrophe. It was an asylum in an isolated village in central France, Saint-Alban-sur-Limagnole. Caregivers, religious and patients worked together side by side during these dark years, for the survival of all for all. And the asylum at Saint-Alban became a hub of activity for the French Underground Resistance. Starting with the period of active resistance which forged the institution, the film will explore how the struggle against Nazi oppression gradually became a struggle against all forms of oppression and confinement. A whole community helped the psychiatrists elaborate a new concept of care for people with mental illness and of their role in society. Amateur 8mm and Super 8 footage, photographs, sound recordings of psychiatrists and patients, and the publication of newsletter attest to Saint-Alban’s amazing artistic, therapeutic, and intellectual vitality. A film which surrounds us with the intensity of this drama born of living and practicing under enemy occupation is a tribute to a collective adventure.Martine Deyres
