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The Enigma of Sleep / L'Enigma Del Sonno

The Enigma of Sleep / L'Enigma Del SonnoThe Enigma of Sleep / L'Enigma Del Sonno

The Enigma of Sleep / L'Enigma Del Sonno (2004, Digital Betacam, 60' e 52') by Enrico Cerasuolo and Sergio Fergnachino
A Zenit Arti Audiovisive, Les Films d'Ici, ZDF-ARTE co-production, with the participation of Discovery Channel, RTSI - Televisione Svizzera and YLE Teema, with the support of CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique), Regione Emilia-Romagna, Emilia-Romagna Film Commission and Bologna Film Commission. Project developed within the framework of Discovery Campus Masterschool 2002.

Synopsis:
A chorus of characters tells the story of how sleep disorders have radically affected their lives. Generations of a family afflicted with a rare and lethal form of insomnia; a narcoleptic painter whose life is half dream, half reality; nocturnal life of a sleep-walker; a lifeguard who has apneas 600 times during sleep; an ex-boxer whose career was KO-ed by narcolepsy; a man who is the world's only documented case of sleep without REM. What they're all looking for is a solution to the mysterious disturbances that afflict them. Thanks to developments in sleep science - which seeks answers in patients' sleeping lives - some sufferers can be cured. For others, however, sleep disturbances remain invincible, because even for the leading experts who appear in this documentary - shot in four countries, France, Israel, Italy and Switzerland - sleep is still very much an enigma.

With: Michel Jouvet (France), Peretz Lavie (Israel), Elio Lugaresi (Italy), Claudio Bassetti (Switzerland) as sleep scientists, the patients and their stories.

Technical data:
Written and directed by: Enrico Cerasuolo and Sergio Fergnachino
Produced by: Massimo Arvat (Zenit Arti Audiovisive) and Edmée Millot (Les Films d'Ici)
Director of Photography: Marc-André Batigne
Editor: Marco Duretti
World Sales: GA&A Productions, Rome www.gaea.it
Contacts: Massimo Arvat arvat@zenit.to.it

Awards

  • Special Jury Award, Doc 2004, Torino Film Festival
  • Special Jury Award, Castellana Grotte International Documentary Festival of Scientific Exploration and Adventure, 2005
  • Prix Spécial Film de Recherche Médicale, Festival des Entretiens de Bichat, Paris, 2005

Festival

  • Leipzig Dokfestival, 2004
  • Romadocfest, 2005
  • Pärnu International Documentary and Anthropology Film Festival, Estonia, 2005
  • Documentary in Europe, 2005
  • Szolnok International Scientific Film Festival, Hungary, 2005
  • Italian Doc Screenings, 2005
  • BSB Association of Documentary Filmakers in Turkey Workshop, Turkey, 2006
  • WPA Western Psychological Association Festival, USA, 2006
  • International Health Film Festival, Belgium, 2006
  • Vedere la Scienza Festival, 2007
  • Uniroma Docscient Festival, 2007

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