Hugo's Brain

Hugo is 22. He suffers from Asperger’s syndrome, or “high functioning autism”. Exceptionally intelligent and endowed with an impressive memory, he’s an outstanding pianist, on a par with some of the best. Yet he lives shut away in his bedroom, a prisoner of his severe emotional and social handicaps. An invisible wall separates him from so-called “normal” or neurotypical people. Through a sensitive and touching docudrama, Hugo’s chaotic journey is told from birth to adult life, as well as his difficult battle to integrate into society. The fiction is intertwined with moving interviews with patients and their families, which shed a light on their daily life, the violence of social interaction, and the difficulty of relationships. The film also points at wrong diagnoses or lack of response from doctors who opt all too quickly for committal to a psychiatric hospital. CGI takes you inside an autistic brain to better understand its characteristics. Unique archive footage traces the history of treatment and care provided for autistic people all over the word. Share the heartrending stories of these men, women and children who, like 1 in 150 people, live with this strange and mysterious syndrome...