Sand Girl

Veronika Raila is a young autistic woman. She is hypersensitive and has been seriously disabled from birth. This film takes us inside her unique world. People other than her loved ones used to ignore that Veronika is actually a human being, an individual with feelings and a life of her own. As a child, she was diagnosed with an IQ of 0. Only her parents refused to believe that this was true. Today, Veronika Raila publishes prose and poems, studies literature and theology. Together with director Mark Michel she looks back on what her life has been so far. Michel blends Veronika's texts and thoughts with observational documentary footage, poetic nature shots and fleeting but powerful sand animations created by artist Anne Loeper. It is an essay about freedom and perception. Director Mark Michel had already directed an award winning documentary short, "Veronika" (2011). In "Sand Girl", Veronika became his creative partner. Her texts are the heart and soul of the film, and it is her who directs many of the illustrations of her interior world. In a profound but sometimes also eminently funny dialogue with Mark Michel she becomes the tour guide of her own universe of sand, music and words.