The eternal ones
Those who suffer from the melancholy of eternity are called eternal. Convinced that death cannot overcome their lives, they believe themselves condemned to wander in anticipation of the day when they will be freed from their existence.
In the Saint-Alban psychiatric hospital in Lozère, patients suffering from this form of melancholia were, until a few years ago, confined to a space called the "square of the eternals." Most of them were Armenian.
In Armenia, legend has it that when Jesus was carrying his cross, the gatekeeper of Pontus Pilate ordered him to hurry. Jesus replied, "I am going away, but you will wait until I return."
Since then, it is said that this man wanders in the mountains of Armenia, that he is the last man.
Original version: Armenian/French
Subtitled version: French subtitles
Credits
Screenplay: Pierre-Yves Vandeweerd
Directed by: Pierre-Yves Vandeweerd
Image: Pierre-Yves Vandeweerd
Sound: Jean-Luc Fichfet
Sound editing: Philippe Boucq
Mixing: Amélie Canini
Editing: Philippe Boucq
Music: Richard Skelton
Production
Cobra Films/Zeugma Films
Co-production
ARTE France
WIP - Liège
With the help
FWB development / FWB-production / Procirep-Agicoa / Languedoc-Roussillon Region / CNC cosip
Price
Grand prize at the Sognos da Noite Festival (Portugal)
Night Award 16. International Festival Night of the Night
Nominated at the Open City Documentary Film Festival (UK)
Broadcasts
ARTE (La Lucarne) 26/09/2017
RTBF January 2018
Tenk: 15/06 > 15/08/2018
MUBI - USA - Online Retrospective February 2018
Festivals
"Vision of Reality" in Nyon
"Golden Apricot" of Yerevan
Douarnenez Festival - Brittany
Lasalle Documentary Festival - Cévennes - France
RIDM Montreal
Documentary Film Festival Istanbul
Open City documentary London
General Assembly of Documentary Film in Lussas (France)
Lessina Film Festival (Italy)
Nancy Documentary Film Festival (France)
Namur Francophone Film Festival
Cerbère-Port Bou Film Festival (France)
Jean Rouch Ethnographic Film Festival (Paris)
Signes de Nuit Festival (France)
Kassler DokFest (Germany)
Festival Frontera Sur (Chile)
Exile Film Festival (Sweden)
Zagreb Dox Film Festival
Amazing travelers (Saint-Malo) France
Trento Film Festival (Italy)