He feels good in the forest; when he’s accompanied by his language interpreter, the chaos of his thoughts comes to rest there. That’s what Lauri types on a cardboard letter grid – which is how he manages to use language to bring his inner life in touch with his environment. The lanky boy who loves philosophy is autistic. He defies his handicap. With an impressive will to communicate, to express himself, Lauri plans to write a book about his special experience of life. He is frequently constrained and made dependent on others by his autism. For an adolescent this distance between desire and fulfilment, as well as the independence denied him, is an emotional roller coaster ride in more than one sense. Breaks in the vital regularity and first hopeful steps, for example looking for a girlfriend, lie close together.
In her unyielding and empathic portrait Finnish director Niina Brandt follows her protagonist through moments of joy and anger, of embracing the world and retiring. She effortlessly shifts between compelling immediacy and close visual observation of Lauri’s everyday environment. Small islands of rest are placed in the flow of events – floating macro shots of the calm forest show the ever-evolving life there from up close.
André Eckardt
Nominated for Young Eyes Film Award