The Enigma of Sleep
The Enigma of Sleep
A chorus of characters tells the story of how sleep disorders have radically affected their lives. Generations of a family afflicted with a rare and lethal form of insomnia; a narcoleptic painter whose life is half dream, half reality; nocturnal life of a sleep-walker; a lifeguard who has apneas 600 times during sleep; an ex-boxer whose career was KO-ed by narcolepsy; a man who is the world's only documented case of sleep without REM.
What they're all looking for is a solution to the mysterious disturbances that afflict them. Thanks to developments in sleep science - which seeks answers in patients' sleeping lives - some sufferers can be cured. For others, however, sleep disturbances remain invincible, because even for the leading experts who appear in this documentary - shot in four countries, France, Israel, Italy and Switzerland - sleep is still very much an enigma.
A Zenit Arti Audiovisive, Les Films d'Ici, ZDF-ARTE co-production
with the participation ofi Discovery Channel, TSI - Televisione Svizzera and YLE Teema
with the support of CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique), Regione Emilia-Romagna, Emilia-Romagna Film Commission and Bologna Film Commission. Project developed within the framework of Discovery Campus Masterschool 2002
Year 2004, Digibeta 60' and 52'
Written and directed by: Enrico Cerasuolo and Sergio Fergnachino
Produced by: Massimo Arvat (Zenit Arti Audiovisive) and Edmée Millot (Les Films d'Ici)
Director of Photography: Marc-André Batigne
Editor: Marco Duretti
World Sales: GA&A Productions, Roma
Featuring: Michel Jouvet (France), Peretz Lavie (Israel), Elio Lugaresi (Italy), Claudio Bassetti (Switzerland) as sleep scientists, the patients and their stories.
Awards
Special Jury Award, Doc 2004, Torino Film Festival
Special Jury Award, Castellana Grotte International Documentary Festival of Scientific Exploration and Adventure, 2005
Prix Spécial Film de Recherche Médicale, Festival des Entretiens de Bichat, Paris, 2005
Festivals
Leipzig Dokfestival, 2004
Romadocfest, 2005
Pärnu International Documentary and Anthropology Film Festival, Estonia, 2005
Documentary in Europe, 2005
Szolnok International Scientific Film Festival, Hungary, 2005
Italian Doc Screenings, 2005
BSB Association of Documentary Filmakers in Turkey Workshop, Turkey, 2006
WPA Western Psychological Association Festival, USA, 2006
International Health Film Festival, Belgium, 2006
Vedere la Scienza Festival, 2007
Uniroma Docscient Festival, 2007
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