Fridrik Thor Fridriksson returns to the Festival with The Sunshine Boy, his first documentary since his debut Rock in Reykjavik. Though documentary is not a genre normally associated with Fridriksson, The Sunshine Boy is unmistakably his work, sharing themes with numerous of his other efforts. Like Angels of the Universe or Children of Nature (or Movie Days or Niceland), Fridriksson’s latest focuses on the disenfranchised and how communication, or any fellow feeling, can be a near miraculous occurrence. In this particular case, “miracle” is an appropriate term: his subject is autism, a condition shrouded in mystery, uncertainty and, for the parents of the affected children, a debilitating sense of helplessness.
The Sunshine Boy follows Margrét Dagmar Ericsdóttir as she attempts to help her youngest son, Keli, who has been diagnosed as severely autistic. Unable to find adequate treatment in Iceland (and increasingly frustrated by conventional medicine’s advice that she just reconcile herself to the fact that she’ll never be able to communicate with her son), Ericsdóttir sets off to investigate alternative forms of therapy. She meets with a wide range of doctors exploring different approaches and other parents with autistic children, as well as several people who were once dismissed as hopeless cases. Most notable of these is the disarming and captivating Temple Grandin, an author and scientist who found a way to communicate despite the fact that virtually every doctor considered her a lost cause. Plain-spoken and direct, Grandin clearly defines the different ways by which autistic people might be able to communicate. Eventually, Ericsdóttir discovers a doctor, Soma Mukhopadhyay, who has developed a method called Rapid Prompting Technique that may allow her to speak with Keli.
The film provides an excellent, precise primer on the condition and the issues surrounding it: whether it’s hereditary or caused by environmental factors; the problems with late diagnosis; and the lack of funding for alternative or, in some cases, any treatment.
Emotionally powerful and at the same time doggedly optimistic, The Sunshine Boy is both howl and hosann —tiff.net
Fridrik Thor Fridriksson (b. 1954) gained international recognition with his feature Children of Nature (1991) which was nominated for the Oscar as Best Foreign Language Film. Fridriksson’s films are both deeply personal and have a strong rooting in Icelandic culture, often depicting characters at the crossroads of tradition and modernity. Films by Fridriksson: Rock in Reykjavik, White Whales, Movie Days, Children of Nature, Cold Fever, Devil’s Island, Angels of the Universe, Falcons.
Fridrik Thor Fridriksson started his film making carrier with a series of experimental films and documentaries in the early 1980’s. In 1987, he founded THE ICELANDIC FILM CORPORATION, which has become Iceland’s most important production company, producing Fridrikssons films as well as working with other Icelandic directors and producers. Through Fridrikssons international reputation the company has built a network of internationally well-established co-production partner companies, including Lars… read more
The Sunshine Boy is a powerful movie that will go a long way toward helping children/adults with autism get the respect that they deserve. All too often they are thought to be mentally retarded when… read review
