Don Juan

In a startling as well as both pleasant and unpleasant documentary we meet 22-year-old Oleg who lives with his mother Marina in Nizhny Novgorod. Marina is outspoken in her opinion that Oleg does't live up to her expectations of how a real man should be and thinks he is an autistic loafer. Aiming to set up a better life for him and make him more "normal," she signs him up for a number of treatments—the one more unconventional and surprising than the last. The director Jerzy Sladkowski follows the events at astoundingly close range in a film that portrays a young man in his desire to be accepted and loved for who he is. Don Juan was the first Swedish film to ever win the main award at the prestigious film festival IDFA this fall. (Göteborg Film Festival)