It's been a while since ICeland's first and only Oscar nominated feature director Fridrik Thor Fridriksson released a film, his last being Niceland in 2004. Since then he's been producing mostly, titles like Guy X, Beowulf and Grendel and most recently Baltasar Kormakur's Reykjavik Rotterdam. He has how ever been filming a documentary on the down low that will be released next January here in Iceland and is about a woman's search for answers about her son's autism called Sunshine Boy.
Autism is a strange disease which affects each person differently, it can completely shut a person down or transform him/her in to a some sort of genius. Did you know for instance that NASA is the largest employer of autistic individuals in the US? Why? Because they are incredible problem solvers and mathematicians. Can you imagine that individuals that most people would label "retarded" or mentally ill are the ones that put people in to outer space?
Most of today technology is designed by autistic people, it's even thought that Albert Einstein was autistic. The problem is that despite our medical knowledge we are not really sure what causes autism or how to treat it. There are different schools of thought on this subject but this film focuses on how to get in touch with the persons trapped inside their bodies.
A english subtitled trailer has been released so you all can take a gander and it's after the break.
That trailer really knows how to tug at the old heartstrings. I'll certainly keep my eyes open for this one. The Asbergers/Autism spectrum is something that gets shoved to the wayside so often in our society because it is so hard to understand.
Talking about and acknowledging autism without so much of the negative or rather fearful energy that has surrounded it for the last decade is a step in the right direction and this film seems to encourage that.