Pénélope

Claire Doyon : 2012

Mother of an autistic little girl, director Claire Doyon decides to try to find a way to make her child feel better by undertaking a long journey. They leave Paris to reach the Mongolian steppes in their journey to find a shaman with healing powers. The city which only emphasised the child's suffocating feeling gives way to a huge space in which her movements, although still with signs of pain, or apnoea, suddenly take another dimension. Going up high and beyond, they journey towards another concept of disease and medicine, towards a different way of travelling and meeting the unknown. Pénélope is a great adventuress, a positive heroine who faces obstacles, overcoming her own limitations for the pleasure of having adventures and meeting people. The immense open spaces finally give the girl a chance to find her dimension in the landscape, even with the uncertainty of her movements and the crises typical of her condition. The trip therefore becomes a way to disperse bits of malaise in those unfamiliar skies, and to imagine a nomadic life that never lets you stop. This prize-winning documentary premiered at Marseille International Film Festival 2012.