Disclaimer: this movie review includes my personal opinion, it is obviously subjective. Please do watch the movie and build your own opinion, as it is an important film to see to my mind when working in the field of psychology.
“Hors normes” is Eric Toledano and Olivier Nakache’s latest film (they notably produced the famous “Intouchables” movie). It hit the screens in October, 2019.
This film follows the daily lives of Bruno (Vincent Cassel) and Malik (Reda Kateb), the directors of “La voix des Justes” and “L’Escale”, two associations who try to help children, adolescents and young adults that have severe forms of autism – the cases that no public medical institution wants.
There are three main plots in this movie. Firstly, we follow Bruno’s attempt to help Joseph, a young adult who has already made great progress, to find a job in the field of washing machines, which he is passionate about. Secondly, we observe how the whole team of educators tries to welcome Valentin, a fourteen-year-old autistic boy who keeps hitting himself and others, and slowly get him to socialize. Thirdly, we follow the inspection led by the French Ministry of Health regarding Bruno’s association, as it doesn’t have an official license, nor does it hire professionals with degrees.
As a reminder, autism spectrum disorder is a developmental condition that generally appears during early childhood. It refers to a broad range of disabilities which can affect social skills, verbal and non-verbal communication, as well as self-regulation. The severe autism disorders that “Hors normes” talks about concern individuals whose disorder has a major impact on their autonomy: the handicap that it represents is very strong. Typical symptoms can be an inability or difficulty to communicate verbally, repetitive behaviour like violent rocking or hand flapping, physical symptoms such as sleeplessness or epilepsy, and extreme sensitivity (to noises, lights, crowds…). These symptoms can bring challenges that the educators in this movie face every day: the latter range from self-injury (like Valentin, who is forced to wear a boxing helmet because he hits his head) to aggressive behaviour (like the new educator who gets punched by a teenager) or eloping (this is the case of the redhead girl who opens the movie as she runs away from her caregivers because of the crowd).
One interesting point is the casting choices: in the middle of professional actors, people with autism were mixed in. That was the case of Benjamin Lesieur, who plays Joseph and delivers a very moving performance. An obvious choice, some might say – who better to play the everyday challenges experienced by people with autism, in a society which doesn’t adapt to them, than autistic people themselves? I personally also see a strong message of inclusion in this choice. One of the most efficient ways to improve the inclusion of autistic people in our society should be to give them similar opportunities as those of neurotypic individuals, all the while adapting the environment so they are comfortable and can show their true colors and potential.
Benjamin Lesieur playing Joseph
The various associations that represent autism in France shared their point of view regarding this film and needless to say they are all quite different.
On the one hand, Danièle Langloys, the president of Autisme France, says that “this movie manages to show those that nobody wants to show. It’s a huge slap in the face and it’s a good thing”. This is also the opinion of Olivia Cattan, president of SOS Autisme France, who seems glad that severe autism was finally pictured at the cinema. Indeed, the general public’s mental representation of autism is Asperger’s syndrome: the idea of very smart people with restricted interests. That is pictured, for example, in the famous movie Rainman, or more recently, in the TV series The Good Doctor. In this sense, Hors Normes does indeed help to show the symptoms of autism spectrum disorder that are extremely disabling and to explain that every autism is different.
On the other hand, the French association Cle-Autiste (Collectif pour la Liberté d’Expression des Autistes) regrets that the real stars of the show remain neurotypic, valid individuals, and that the people with autism remain secondary protagonists. For them, this movie does not defend autism or autistic people, it is merely an entertaining movie for “normal” people. I personally can understand this point of view in the sense where the patients shown in this movie show no autonomy and can recall certain stereotypes (autistic children who scream, can’t talk, hit, will never be able to work…). Maybe the script could have insisted on the fact that those are the most extreme cases of autism and that the great majority of people with autism spectrum disorder are not like that. However, in the defense of Nakache and Toledano (who wrote the movie alongside professionals and people with autism), they did insist on the fact that the violent behaviour was a consequence of the lack of treatment, not an inherent symptom.
Another very interesting piece of information around this movie is that the two main protagonists are actually inspired of Stéphane Benhamou and Daoud Tatou, respective directors of the real-life associations “Le silence des justes” and “Le Relais IDF” in Paris. They are two of the very few actors of inclusion of autistic people, however severe the symptoms.
Vincent Cassel with Stéphane Benhamou (right) and Daoud Tatou (left)
The goal of the film, according to the famous director duo, was to put into light the huge lack of patient care in the field of heavy autism. The film concentrates on “the cases that nobody wants”: the kids who don’t speak, who bang their heads so hard on the wall they bleed, those who bite, those who scream and run away. The movie insists on the fact that these manifestations aren’t inner symptoms: they are consequences of isolation, chemical camisoles, and binding to beds when children are agitated. The fact is, as Vincent Cassel’s character says to the inspectors: “all of this is about money”. Due to lack of funding, the specialised institutions refuse to take in the most urgent and difficult patients (those who need extra attention and time because their parents cannot cope). They bounce from institution to institution, ending up in specialized hospital units in tiny rooms, cut off from everything. Who takes care of them? Benhamou and Tatou are some of the very few in France to take in these children whatever the symptoms. The height of absurdity of this real-life story, to my mind, is the fact that those associations were actually almost closed by the Ministry. Citizens have tried to fill a gap that the French medical system has created by ignoring a growing social problem, leaving a part of their population behind, and instead of encouraging this initiative, the administrative instances menace to close them down because they don’t tick all the boxes and follow all the regulations.
The ugly truth is that not many people fancy taking care of these kids and there is still huge progress to be made in this field. Not all children with autism present symptoms of that severity and that must not be forgotten. But some mental health issues are very severe. To my mind, the movie’s aim is not to stigmatize: it’s to inform on an urgent need to take care of these children, who can make huge progress if they are treated as human beings. The lack of money and human resources in the mental health care system is what is making them so alienated. It may not be a perfect movie, but that is not its aim. We can thank Toledano and Nakache for once again tackling taboo subjects that make everyday people uncomfortable but, ultimately, open their eyes to the realities of our society: one that has yet to include all the colours of the rainbow. Maybe, just maybe, with people like them who keep on fighting and manage to see further than the stereotypes, we are going in the direction of a more inclusive society.
Words I learned
Rocking = bercement, balancement
To elope = fuir
Caregivers = soignants
Needless to say = il va sans dire
Disabling = handicapants
To bind = attacher
Written by Joanna Gautier