‘We have a dream’, Pascal Plisson’s film to raise awareness among young people about “difference and disability”

The director applauds that countries like Kenya, Nepal and Rwanda facilitate inclusion and do not leave “a child on the side of the road”

Director Pascal Plisson has presented the documentary film ‘We have a dream’ in Spain, an initiative that, as he has argued, allows “to raise awareness among the youngest about disability and change their point of view on difference and disability.”

This was revealed in statements to Europa Press, where he also specified that it is a project that began 10 years ago following the filming of his previous film, ‘On the way to school’. “I met a family in India with a child in a wheelchair. The brothers were pushing the chair to take their brother to school and the love of this family around the disability inspired me to make this film,” he explained.

This 96-minute French film, which will be released in cinemas in Spain on January 24, has five stories of six children from different parts of the world who suffer from some type of disability and who face it from different situations. economic. In addition, it has the support of the NGO Educo and the ‘la Caixa’ Foundation.

To find these experiences, Plisson has assured that it has needed “a lot of research.” In fact, he added that he partnered with the French NGO Handicap International. Regarding the protagonists of the film, the director has emphasized the “courage” and “incredible determination” of all of them. “It is a love story with parents, of incredible resilience,” he noted.

Likewise, he applauded that countries such as Kenya, Nepal and Rwanda “greatly” facilitate the inclusion of young people with disabilities in schools, in sports and in society, “in a very simple and fast way.” “They don’t leave a child on the side of the road,” he added.

However, he has specified that it is not possible to have a “one hundred percent inclusive” education because “some disabilities such as autism, with such large spectrums, need a very specialized approach and inclusion may perhaps be difficult.” In any case, he added that “everything possible must be done to try.”

Maud, Xavier, Nirmala and Khendo, Charles and Antonio are the protagonists of ‘We have a dream’. In the case of the first, it is a 14-year-old French girl who is deaf and whose leg was amputated at birth. Despite his disability, his passions are music and dance.

For his part, Xavier is also 14 years old, but he is from Rwanda. He is albino, a “very complicated” condition in Africa, where part of his family saw him as a “monster” and wanted to “sell him to the highest bidder.”

Nirmala and Khendo are two 13-year-old girls from Nepal, who did not know each other until the 2015 earthquake, for which each of them had to have a leg amputated. Due to the pandemic, none of them have been able to change their prostheses, which are already “old and worn out.”

Another of the protagonists is Charles, from Kenya. He is 11 years old, blind since birth and wants to become a distance runner. Finally, Antonio, the youngest of the six, is eight years old and from Brazil. In his case, he has autism, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and hearing disability.

PEDAGOGICAL PROJECT FOR STUDENTS FROM SIX YEARS OLD

‘We have a dream’ also contains a pedagogical project in the classrooms aimed at students aged six and older. Thus, it has a dossier of activities that, in addition to generating debate and promoting critical thinking, relate the documentary to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The objective is “for schoolchildren to discover realities different from their own and to generate debate in class about different topics that the film addresses.” In this sense, it aims to “change the perspective on disability, the vulnerability of people to conflicts and natural disasters, the desire to improve, the importance of solidarity, education, the discovery of new cultures.”