Director Priscila Guedes and neuroscientist Fabiano de Abreu joined forces in a project that could reach the Cannes Film Festival. Science and the arts came together in «Catalepsy», a film that talks about a real disease through Virtual Reality.
The film deals with catalepsy, a paralysis of sleep, as the director explains: “There were people who were buried alive because of it. In the past, medicine did not have tools, accessories and instruments sensitive enough to detect signs of life in some people in this frame”. “In addition, there are many stories that human beings were buried alive and woke up when they were already buried or other cases that woke up during the funeral, which caused a shock to ancient civilizations. People thought it was witchcraft or simply believed that these people were coming back from the dead, but they didn’t know that, in reality, they were just carriers of sleep paralysis, a pathology that can happen in cases of extreme tiredness, stress or depression”, he says.
In the work, “the character is called Júlia, who wakes up in the Swiss Alps, where she lives, and realizes that someone is trying to get in, but she can’t see anyone and can’t open the door. Suddenly, she rings the alarm clock and she wakes up from a deep sleep again. But hadn’t she already woken up? That’s where the story develops”, reveals the director.
“Catalepsy” is a film in which there is a dialogue between the conscience and the subconscious, represented by the house where the protagonist lives. In the work, “the way she tries to communicate with herself is shown. All of this will arouse a series of feelings in the viewer, mainly through the hormones that are intentionally activated through the story being told”.
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