Compostelle at the Open Air Cinema in Gland

Last night I went to the outdoor cinema again, this time to watch Compostelle. It’s a hiking trip movie. It’s a film that is centered of walking from point A to Point B, over a period of months.

The three main characters are Fred, the adult ‘éducatrice’, Adam, the problem child, and Estella, the girl/woman walking the Camino for the second time, after aborting her first effort. she does so with a leg missing.

The incident she describes in the film, for how she lost her leg is similar to how she lost it in reality, not just fiction. [Article](https://www.faire-face.fr/2026/04/10/maelle-vidou-compostelle-cinema/)

It’s interesting that they use a differently abled person in the movie, and that her experience is similar to that of the fictional character. It adds a dimension that we don’t see so much in film and television, especially when we watch US or other country films.

We often see people of different abilities if we watch Live at the Apollo and other programs, but not so much in this genre of film.

In the film they explore two types of handicap, physical, and mental. We’re used to the mental and emotional handicaps. Without them plenty of films would have no reason to be, but the physical handicap is different. In the film the main character says “but with your handicap everyone wants to help you, whereas with mine I’m stigmatised” or something to the effect.

Whether we’re introverts, socially awkward, or other, we might feel that way, but it’s not true that people don’t want us to help.

Years ago, through work, I encountered someone in a wheel chair and my instinctive way of helping would not have been correct. The correct response is “How can I help you”. The answer was “Ask them to put a ramp”.

This isn’t a hiking movie, but rather a film about three main characters evolving during a hike, to either achieve personal goals, or to grow as individuals.

Whilst the frame of the film is the Camino, the film is about people and how they change with time. That they are on the Camino is incidental, rather than pivotal. They would go through the same mental and emotional journey on another route.