Manic

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Documentary

Grappling with her brother and sister's psychological problems, filmmaker Kalina Bertin delves into her father's past, the better to understand the illness eating away at her family. Gradually, she discovers a man other than the one she remembers: cult leader, bipolar, pathological liar, seductive manipulator.

Manic draws us into the many lives of an elusive man, testifying to the profound consequences of mental illness. By lifting the lid on the past, the filmmaker is trying to rebuild the present.

From home movies, some of them made by her father, to present-day images captured on the fly, she sparks a dialogue and transforms her diary into group therapy. A family drama that's both reflexive and poignant.