Smartgransen (1984)

Genres - Culture & Society  |   Sub-Genres - Biography, Illnesses & Disabilities, Psychology, Social Issues, Medicine  |   Run Time - 74 min.  |   Countries - Sweden  |  
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Synopsis by Eleanor Mannikka

Agneta Elers-Jarleman is the director and writer of this highly personal, moving documentary about her former film-school classmate and lover Jean Montgrenier and his struggles to walk and to communicate after a tragic, 1977 accident left him deaf, blind, and partially paralyzed. At least, the doctors assumed he was deaf -- that may not be so -- and wrote his case off as "hopeless." In spite of their attitude, Elers-Jarleman records on film the progress Montgrenier made in a five-year period. He is eventually able to make singing sounds in a clear but so far futile attempt to communicate, and he has started to walk again. In spite of this progress, doctors are not reclassifying his case and so he is left without needed therapeutic support to bring him further along. The director also interviews several of Montgrenier's friends who no longer visit him -- all have reasons or excuses for their long absences that may remind more than one viewer to visit old friends in need.