cph:dox 9-17/11 Elle s’appelle Sabine
One of those films that are hard to watch. A beautiful young girl falls ill and turns into an aggressive young woman full of aggression to end up as a plump adult full of medication that can calm her down, desperate to get her sister’s attention, in her own world of fantasy and puppets from her childhood.
The sister, the Maurice Pialat actress Sandrine Bonnaire, has made this film based on shootings of today plus the home video archive she has from 25 years of togetherness with a sister that suddenly changed, fell ill and was traumatised by 5 years of non-treatment at a hospital. The place she was taken to when Sandrine no longer would or could cope with taking care of her. Neither could other family members.
It is touching and the film star sister must be saluted for staying as the sister and nothing else, stating however that without her using her fame to get financing for the set up of an institution for her sister and other mentally handicapped human beings, Sabine would have been a monster in a hospital.
Again you are reminded through this film how powerful home video (archive) material can function as evidence of what was once and is no longer.
Sandrine Bonnaire: Elle s’appelle Sabine. France, 2007.
More about the festival: http://www.cphdox.dk/d1/front.lasso
