Peter Ghesquiere, “Downside Up” (2016)
A sweet-natured film exploring concepts of normality and difference by turning them upside down, “Downside Up” may unintentionally get up quite a few noses. A boy, Eric, is born into a society where everyone has Down syndrome. The film follows him all the way through to adulthood during which he quickly discovers that he is different from everyone around him and has gifts and abilities that others don’t have. At the same time, his gifts become a burden to him: at school and wherever else he goes, he has to tie everyone’s shoelaces as people are unable to figure how to avoid turning their shoelace ties into knots. Despairing that he’ll ever be accepted for what he is and is not, Eric (Nico Sturm) decides to undergo some drastic brain surgery until he meets fellow would-be brain surgery patient Floor (Helen de Vos) and the two find love and eventually a solution to the shoelace-tying problem.
Revolving as it does around themes of accepting people as they are and looking at the world from the point of view of people with disabilities, the plot unfolds like a fairy tale and is easy to follow. Some scenes of childbirth and prostitution may shock viewers. The film has a definite look with a limited colour scheme which is a bit dull. The cast of actors, nearly all of whom (apart from Sturm and de Vos) have Down syndrome, is very good. If anything, the pressure is on Sturm and de Vos not to over-act their parts which would turn the film into a patronising piece.
Some people might indeed say that the film does patronise its Down syndrome actors as they are shown not only fumbling with their shoelaces but running a society where everything they do ends up going wrong. Perhaps the low point comes when Eric is subjected to physical examination by doctors and nurses looking for his missing third chromosome 21 or escapes being pulled underwater when a psychologist throws a block of concrete into deep water. Are we being invited to laugh with the actors or at them? I guess it is just as well that the film ends on a happy note very quickly with Eric and Floor able to find their niche in a society where they’ll always be different from everyone else.