Today I went to a screening of
Angels of the Universe, which was showing as part of the Melbourne International Film Festival.
It is an Icelandic film about an artistically-inclined man who, upon being
rejected by his girlfriend, suffers a psychological breakdown, becomes
schizophrenic and is committed to a mental institution; there he meets
several other patients, including a man who believes that he telepathically
wrote all the Beatles' songs. He contends with his inner demons, muses on
the nature of sanity or otherwise, and in the course of this, has a number
of adventures, including paying a visit to the President with a fellow patient.
It's a beautiful film; a very thoughtful and somewhat philosophical portrayal of sanity and its absence, set against the vast, cold, desolately beautiful
backdrops of the Icelandic landscape, and featuring music from local
post-rockers Sigur Rós. If you get a chance to see it (and it's showing
on this coming Friday), doing so is highly recommended.