Fiction
The Miracle Worker
The Miracle Worker, 1962, USA, A. Penn
Based on William Gibson's stage play, this film tells the story of the difficult relationship between a girl born deaf and blind and her teacher. It is a work of profound human depth that shows, with remarkable clarity, how hard it is to enter a world that seems mysterious to most people—but once understood, teaches us much about ourselves. The film won Oscars for both its lead actresses, Anne Bancroft and Patty Duke.
Mask
Mask, 1985, USA, P. Bogdanowitch
The true story of Rocky Dennis, a teenager with a rare bone disease. Rocky is a young man of exceptional intelligence and countless interests who tries to live his life fully, even knowing it will be short. Though different in the eyes of convention, he is wholly accepted within a community of outcasts—his mother's biker friends—and finds love with a blind girl who sees far beyond her damaged eyes.
Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon
Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon, 1970, USA, O. Preminger
A film of the seventies with both the virtues and flaws of that era, it tells the story of three people living together: two men and a woman. Her face is scarred (Liza Minnelli); the second is confined to a wheelchair; the third is epileptic. Together they learn to face the suspicion of the "normal" world.
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Frankie Starlight
Frankie Starlight, 1995, USA/Ireland, M. Lindsay Hogg
Frankie, the son of a young French woman raped during World War II, has dwarfism. He will become a successful writer, telling his own story. A dreamlike film with splendid performances, it examines Frankie's "abnormality" only in fragments, preferring instead to focus on his vision of life—as high as the stars he has learned to love.
A Child Is Waiting
A Child Is Waiting, 1963, USA, J. Cassavetes
One of the first films to address the education of disabled children in a California institution. In his second feature, Cassavetes tackles a difficult subject with a realism that was unusual for the time.
Go Now
Go Now, 1995, GB, M. Winterbottom
Direct, tragic, and unflinching like the subject it portrays; as simple and traumatic as the disease that strikes the protagonist (an excellent Robert Carlyle). He is a factory worker and football fan who confronts the reality of multiple sclerosis firsthand. The illness infects not just his body but every aspect of his life. A television film that surprises with its artistic quality, the truth of its situations, and the power of its performances. A small masterpiece.
The Big Watermelon
1993, F. Archibugi
Inspired by the work of child psychiatrist Marco Lombardo Radice, the film tells the story of a girl suffering from recurring epileptic seizures who develops a deep bond of trust and affection with the psychiatrist who admits her to his ward. In the background are the stories of many other troubled young people, told in full dimension, enriching and deepening the narrative. The director skillfully handles the storytelling, coloring it with dramatic, sometimes darkly comic, sometimes tragic tones, measured and rarely falling into sentimentality or cheap pathos. The entire cast is excellent, particularly striking is Anna Galiena, torn between fear of a daughter she cannot understand and her relationship with a husband she has both loved and understood too well.
Lamb
Lamb, 1986, GB, C. Gregg
A young Catholic priest takes care of an epileptic, maladjusted boy whom his mother has abandoned at a boarding school. They flee together with money from a small inheritance. They experience peaceful days, but the medicines run out (and the boy's seizures grow more frequent), the money dries up, and police search for them. The film, based on Bernard Mac Laverty's novel and inspired by true events, ends in tragedy yet impresses with its originality, moving beyond tired literary and cinematic stereotypes.
Awakenings
Awakenings, 1990, USA, P. Marshall
A brilliant doctor, through his research, manages to bring several patients suffering from encephalitis lethargica out of comas. But the miracle proves fleeting; within months, the patients suffer inevitable relapse. Despite good intentions, the film feels saccharine and unconvincing in its atmosphere and staging, straying too far from the real events that inspired it. Still, Robert de Niro delivers an excellent performance, once again proving his abilities, and Robin Williams is more controlled and convincing than usual.
The Elephant Man
The Elephant Man, 1980, USA, D. Lynch
Possibly one of the most beautiful films about difference ever made, it tells the true story of John Merrick, who lived in nineteenth-century England, his body destroyed by an extraordinary series of malformations. He was exhibited as a freak show attraction under the name "the Elephant Man." Through a doctor who takes his case to heart, the vast human treasure hidden within that grotesque body is revealed. With its splendid reconstruction of late Victorian London, brilliant direction, and powerful performances, this is a work that completely reverses values in play, depicting "normal" people as exploiters and men without poetry—a quality reserved for a man (and I emphasize Man) who was forced to recreate both the world and himself from within. If the final scene does not move you to tears, you should probably see a doctor.
An Angel at My Table
An Angel at My Table, 1990, Australia, J. Campion
The biography of Janet Frame, a New Zealand writer confined for eight years in various psychiatric hospitals despite being perfectly sane. An important and beautiful film, it shows how easily one can be labeled outside the established order.
The following list is drawn from catalogs by LEDHA (League for the Rights of the Handicapped—Via S. Barnaba 29, Milan; tel. 02/6570425) and Cooperativa La Rete (Via Taramelli 8/1, Trento; tel. 0461/987269)
Partial Eclipse
1982, Czechoslovakia, J. Jires
Marta, a fourteen-year-old girl, is losing her sight. At first she hopes it is temporary, but she ends up in a school for the blind with little chance of recovery. The struggle to accept this new limitation is intense, complicated by the already difficult problems of adolescence. A peculiar psychologist from Prague helps her find her balance and her will to live.
Summer
Sommer, 1986, Germany, P. Groning
The film explores the relationship between a father and his autistic son, whose attention is focused on a glass marble. The film appears still on the surface but moves in an entirely original way.
Gaby: A True Story
Gaby: A True Story, 1987, L. Mandoki
The true story of Gaby, who has cerebral palsy and communicates only by moving her left foot. Through this foot, she writes a book about her struggle to communicate and build her own life.
The Taste of Water
1982, Netherlands, O. Seunke
The story of a social worker's work with a retarded adolescent girl with severe psychological disturbances. It won the prize for best first feature at the Venice Biennale in 1982.
Together
Together, 1956, GB, L. Mazzetti
The film portrays the friendship between two deaf-mute friends—poetic and tender despite its tragic ending.
Joey
Joey, 1974, GB, B. Gibson
Four friends with cerebral palsy work with great difficulty and sacrifice to type the memoirs of one of them: "Tongue Tied," a true story. Kenny (The Kid Brother), 1987, USA/Canada/Japan, C. Gagnon—The life and struggles of an intelligent and lively thirteen-year-old boy born without lower limbs. A film balanced between satirical comedy and melodrama.
The Gaze of Others
Les Regards des Autres, 1980, France, F. Solanas
Produced by the EEC, this is an inquiry based on meetings and interviews with various physically handicapped people.
Loving Walter
Loving Walter, 1983, GB, S. Frears
This film explores with great psychological finesse the situation of severely handicapped adults. A splendid author's film that emphasizes their desire to love and their need for independence.
Mama
1991, China, Z. Yuan
A mother devotes herself entirely to raising her thirteen-year-old autistic and epileptic son in contemporary China. A film inspired by the autobiographical experience of Qing Yan, the film's screenwriter and lead actress.
On the Shoulders of Giants
1979, GB, A. Simmons
The true story of a child born without arms and legs (due to Thalidomide), abandoned by his parents and adopted by a truck driver who builds a machine that gives the boy independence.
A Test of Love
A Test of Love, 1985, Australia, G. Brealey
The true story of Anne McDonald, a severely spastic but intelligent girl, rescued from the institution where she has lived since age three by her courageous therapist Jessica.
Documentaries
Love Forbidden
Behinderte Liebe, 1979, Switzerland, M. Graf
In a German-speaking Swiss village, a group of severely handicapped people lived in a mixed community with non-handicapped people, friends, and volunteers. Avoiding easy sentimentality, the film describes the life of this community, even in its most difficult moments, the stories, problems, and choices of individual residents and their firm determination to forge a connection with the outside world. The young protagonists question the concept of "difference" and claim the right to love and sexuality.
Best Boy
Best Boy, 1979, USA, I. Wohl
Philly is a fifty-year-old man with intellectual disability; he has lived at home all his life and is completely unprepared for the outside world. When he loses his father, his elderly mother cannot care for him. Philly is helped by his cousin (who is also the film's director) and several social workers.
Factor H
Factor H, 1981, M. Cadringher
This documents an initiative by the Provincial Administration of Genoa. Thanks in part to the cooperation of a working-class community, dozens of handicapped young people were hired by a factory after a trial period. Despite countless difficulties and doubts, they succeeded in integrating into the workplace.
The Land of Silence and Darkness
1971, Germany, W. Herzog
Every scene of this authored documentary is a station on the epic journey of Fini Straubinger, a woman who is blind and deaf-mute, as she conquers new possibilities for communication. She has dedicated herself to helping others who share her infirmity. Accompanied by an interpreter (blind people use a tactile alphabet), she lives various experiences with them.
Silence and Words
1994, D. del Boca and P. Motta
The film is constructed around three stories. These are encounters with people living with different handicaps (autism, spastic tetraplegia, and Down syndrome respectively) who tell their own stories and share their experiences.
Handicapped
Behindert, 1974, GB, S. Dwoskin
The diary of a physically handicapped man. It mixes fiction and documentary reality without distinguishing between them. The film has three parts: the encounter between Dwoskin and a woman; the attempt to live together; the growing contradiction between the "normal" and the "different." It ends with dark humor.
Piero and Others
1990, D. del Boca and P. Motta
The film centers on Piero Motta (also co-director), a young tetraplegic man who, in an interview, tells his life story and analyzes people's reactions in hidden-camera situations where he becomes variously an interviewer, a hitchhiker, or someone asking for help navigating architectural barriers.
Alone
Seuls, 1989, Belgium/France, T. Knauff and O. Smolders
The faces and gestures of some autistic children in a stunning document about the isolation in which they live, prisoners of their "empty fortress."
Stepping Out
Stepping Out, 1980, Australia, C. Noonan
A Chilean therapist came up with the idea of transforming the lives of forty people with intellectual disability and managed to help them leave the institution where they lived isolated. The film recounts this exceptional adventure, showing the techniques and passion with which the therapist succeeded. Music by Keith Jarrett.
I Want the Sun on My Face
1985, France, P.A. Fliroz and J.J. Roudière
A film shot by the brother of Stephan, twenty-two years old (Down syndrome), showing how the family helps him participate in many sports and integrate into everyday life.