On World Autism Awareness Day, French-speaking Belgian novelist, poet and critic, professor of literature at the University of Liège, Laurent Demoulin will speak at the IIC Brussels. Demoulin is the author of ‘l’amore e la merda’, translated by Thea Rimini for Mincione Edizioni, a novel that was published in France under the title ‘Robinson’ (Gallimard, 2016) and won the Victor-Rossel Prize.
“L’amore e la merda”, published in France by Gallimard and winner of the most prestigious prize in Belgian French-speaking literature (prix Rossel), is a book about an absolute, difficult and thwarted love, that of a father for his son, an autistic father-no for his autistic son-yes. But autism is addressed without concessions or patheticism and with a good dose of Belgian humour. From one chapter to the next – or rather, from one picture to the next – Demoulin constructs an epic of the everyday, made up of trips to the supermarket, of walks in the city (Simenon’s Liège), but also of scatological reflections: moments, emotions, difficulties, pictures of purity and happiness in which even cleaning one’s own child becomes a gesture of unconditional love.
Afterwards, the documentary ‘Se ti abbraccio non aver paura’ by Niccolò Maria Pagani will be screened.
Franco Antonello has an autistic son, Andrea. When Andrea turned 18, father and son decided to embark on a motorbike trip across the United States. From that adventure came the book ‘Se ti abbraccio non aver paura’, written by Fulvio Ervas and published by Marcos y Marcos, which became a worldwide best seller.
In 2018, while Gabriele Salvatores began shooting the film inspired by their book, Franco and Andrea decided to get back in the saddle of their BMW to cross Europe and reach Morocco at the foot of the Sahara desert, following the route of Marrakech Express, Salvatores’ film released in cinemas 30 years ago. The result was a journey of almost 9,000 km through hurricanes, landslides and a thousand difficulties, which gave rise to the documentary “Se ti abbraccio non aver paura”, directed by Niccolò Maria Pagani and produced by Ushuaia Film. A road movie about autism, travel and the bond between a father and son. But above all about the courage of those who choose never to give up.
Awards and prizes:
· Bahamas International Film Festival 2021: Documentary
· CinemAbility Film Fest 2019: Panorama
2019, VO IT, ST EN, 56’