12 jours

Every year, tens of thousands of people in France are placed under psychiatric care without their consent. By law, they are to be brought before the judge within 12 days. The judge has to decide whether the patient is to stay in the hospital or allowed to leave.  
 
 Granted access to these hearings for the first time, celebrated filmmaker/photographer Raymond Depardon captures the trial of the human soul as it is sent to heaven or sentenced to hell right before our eyes. This process is a difficult trial for patients which include criminals and victims of horrible crimes, but no less difficult is it both for the judges that have to choose their words carefully and for the viewers who will be forced to challenge their stereotypes of the mentally ill. 

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