Director: Jeff Malmberg
Starring: Mark Hogancamp
This is one of the best
documentaries I’ve ever seen. It’s surprising, heartwarming, shocking,
intelligent, a little weird, naked, and beautiful. Those last two are its most
striking features. It’s a close and intimate story. It may sound quirky in its
description and may seem like one of those strange people stories, but it isn’t.
It is so much more than you might imagine from my mere recommendation here.
The movie follows the
passion of Mark Hogancamp, who has built an imaginary world in his back yard.
He’s built that world out of original G.I. Joe-style military dolls and
Barbies. He composes scenarios with the dolls in a make believe Belgian town
called Marwencol. The town is a World War II safe haven, where American and
German soldiers agree not to fight so they can drink and enjoy the beautiful
women who inhabit it. Mark photographs the scenes he composes in his doll town.
The photos are striking.
But, what drives a grown man
to play with dolls and develop such an intricate fantasy involving them? Mark
was once an alcoholic. One night, five young men savagely beat him after he
left the bar. He was beaten so severely that his face had to be reconstructed
and his brain was so damaged he lost his memory in its entirety and had to
re-learn how to talk, read and write. The dolls are his therapy. They help him
develop his finger dexterity and act as an outlet for his frustrations over his
attack.
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