My Beautiful Broken Brain

2014 "Life is like a dream"
7.1| 1h24m| en
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A profoundly personal voyage into the complexity, fragility and wonder of the human brain, after Lotje Sodderland miraculously survives a hemorrhagic stroke and finds herself starting again in an alien world, bereft of language and logic. This feature documentary takes us on a genre-twisting tale that is by turns excruciating and exquisite - from the devastating consequences of a first-time neurological experiment, through to the extraordinary revelations of her altered sensory perception.

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Hellen I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much
BootDigest Such a frustrating disappointment
Kayden This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama
Logan By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.
Janne Petroci I started watching this documentary without a clear idea of what a stroke is or what to expect of it. Within the first 30 minutes I was crying because of the intensity of Lotje's experience. I can't even imagine how hard it is to go through such a thing and never give up hope. I loved that she filmed a lot of it herself, even though she couldn't always explain how she felt. But you do see her evolution, not only in her recovery but also in acceptance of what is. She became conscious about her condition and about the importance of rest and tranquility in life, which is slightly different from the person she was before her stroke.This documentary is a reality-check about the severity of brain damage but also about being conscious, satisfied and grateful for your life. It teaches you the strength of human faith, even though she didn't always think she would recover - she never gave up and that is exactly what got her this far. She is an example for all of us, with a beautiful broken brain or just a regular one.
Angel Youles One of the things that struck me most about this documentary is how the filmmakers capture and recreate the experiences after Lotje Sodderland's hemorrhagic stroke and make it real and comprehensible for those who wouldn't understand how it feels for Lotje and others who suffer from this. The usage of colour and amplification of sounds help the audience to not only understand what it is like for her but to also be able to hear and see it. I imagine that was her goal for making this documentary, to share her story and feel less isolated in it all and it truly pulls at your heart strings. She said it was also a way of making sense of it all for herself too in the documentary.The documentary is very real and deeply meaningful in many ways... you go on the journey with Lotje, and you feel very much for her. You watch her go from not being able to talk very much, go through therapy and experiments, to speaking about her experiences and accepting her new reality. The admirable thing is that she never gave up fighting and hope. She got better through doing so and it is a clear and beautiful message that this documentary gets across. No matter how bad it is, you should never give up hope... Lotje even found love with that beautiful broken brain of hers! It also provokes the question of reality and how brain plays a major part in constructing it. Lotje experiences a new reality, enriched with colour from the right eye and deeper field of vision, she experiences light and sound differently and she comes to accept that reality she has and is still very thankful about life and her journey is inspiring! The medium of film is beautiful to me because of this... so many stories and experiences are shared and can be understood and recreated through film. If you are a lover of documentary, science or life, I'd highly recommend this documentary.
tenafterdave It seems people who have had experience with strokes or other brain injuries are the first to be weighing in about this film. I thought it was an excellent, commendably honest look at the confusion and frustration which are common components of the injured brain. (In my case, I experienced a fractured skull with subdural hematoma when I was just entering my teen years. It took a full year of therapy for me to fully recover.) I was spared aphasia, yet I experienced hemi-paralysis and remember vividly the cognitive distortions and unreal-seeming surprises that occurred, much as they to do the brave Lotje in the film.All in all, I thought this was an outstanding film, and wish nothing but the very best for the brave young lady who documented her experience.
mynamemcgregor-1 As a survivor of multiple strokes including a major hemorrhagic stroke in 1999 just 13 days after my 37th Birthday and a massive hemorrhagic stroke 2011 just before Christmas I can relate to the lady in this film, I went through and I am still going through a lot of what she had experienced from her stroke. I found this movie very good at explaining what we as stroke survivors are going through. I would highly recommend this movie to people who are interested stroke experiences and want to understand what we are going through because it is truly hard for us to explain to others what it is like to live life with our beautiful broken brains.