Our Lucky Hours

  • 9 10
  • 2019
  • 77min
Our Lucky Hours
  • Original Title: Les Heures Heureuses

In World War II, a psychiatric asylum in France not only had to deal with the Nazi invasion. Its staff also pioneered a revolutionary way of treating psychiatric patients.

Our Lucky Hours
Awards

AWARDS: Special Mention at Visions du Réel

OFFICIAL SELECTIONS: 2019 World Premiere: Visions du Réel – National Competition/ International Premiere DOK Leipzig/ Solothurn Film Festival/ Rotterdam International Film Festival/ Göteborg Film Festival/ Traces de Vie, Alès – Itinérances Film Festival/ Nova cinema/ Rendezvous With Madness/ Cinemed Festival/ Festival International Aprèsvaran/ DOC-Cévennes

Our Lucky Hours. A psychiatric asylum in Nazi-occupied France

During the Second World War, 45,000 psychiatric patients perished in French hospitals. Only  one facility survived intact: an asylum in Saint-Alban an isolated rural village in central  France.  

At Saint-Alban, doctors, patients, nuns, and nurses worked side by side, for the survival of all.  With active resistance in the background, the doctors led a whole community in elaborating a  new conception of psychiatry and the madman’s role in society. 

The fight against the Nazi  oppressor changed into a fight against all forms of oppression and confinement. Saint-Alban  became the crucible of the “institutional psychotherapy” movement that revolutionized post war psychiatric care.  

Martine Deyres
Martine Deyres Director

Production Companies

Les Films du Tambour de Soie


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