DIRECTOR: Marita Mayer
FORMAT: Animated Documentary Short
TARGET GROUP: Family
LENGTH: 7-9 min
TECHNIQUE: 2D animation

Six children, aged 4 to 14 portray their Grandfather suffering from global aphasia and give us insight to how they interact with someone, who can neither speak, read or write.

The children were all born after he had had several strokes 16 years ago. They only know their grandfather the way he is now: sitting in a wheelchair with an asymmetric face, a ‘broken eye’ and the inability to communicate verbally.

The kids are either scared of the wheelchair and the sounds he makes or they love sitting on his lap and cruising through the woods. But no matter what type of feelings they have when visiting him, one is always present: curiosity. They wonder why he is the way he is, how he was before the strokes and when he will be well again – and it is hard to accept, that the latter will never happen.

The film shows the condition aphasia from an unbiased perspective. It questions how we take verbal communication for granted and appeals for more patience and inclusion.

In January 2020, Marita won the pitching contest during the Kortfilmkonventet (short film forum) in Trondheim, which was a great start for the development phase.