United States 2019, 110 min, English, Hebrew subtitles
Oliver Sacks was probably the only neurologist to have ever attained superstar status. He became famous for his bestseller Awakenings (later a film starring Robin Williams and Robert De Niro), where he documented his groundbreaking treatment of long-term patients in a mental ward.
Speaking with great sincerity and sensitivity shortly after receiving a diagnosis of terminal cancer at the age of 82, Sacks shared the patients’ fascinating stories, as well as his own tale—including how, as soon as he graduated from Oxford, he got on his motorcycle and drove as far away from London as he could (where, at the time, he could not live openly as a gay man), and from his semi-dysfunctional traditionalist Jewish family. This film reveals the warm, vulnerable, almost fragile, and surprisingly sincere man behind the impressive career.
Previous Festivals: NYFF, Telluride Film Festival, Hamptons International Film Festival (Audience Award), Middleburg Film Festival, Virginia Film Festival, AFI Fest, San Francisco Film Festival