Vision Du Réel – La Muraille

Over 107 years ago when the disease was not yet understood and under control when someone fell sick with leprosy they would be sent out of society to live alone in caves to avoid the spread of their affliction. It’s only later that the disease was understood and became treatable.

The documentary did not address much about the construction of the sanatorium except to say that convicts that were sentenced to death for a crime were made to build the ramparts around the city. These were two and a half meters tall and broken glass was put on the top. The aim was to keep the sick in. The local community was afraid of the disease that they did not understand.

I say "the locals" but children of guards who were exposed to the community saw that they had nothing to fear, because this disease has a a genetic component. It can’t be transmitted between individuals, except from generation to generation.

It’s interesting to watch such a documentary today, because such a place, to a large extent has to reinvent itself. Leprosy has diminished and is less of an issue in Europe. As a result the hospital is less and less useful.

If I made such a documentary I would have spent more time trying to find archive footage, to see if I could understand more about how the place was when it was busy.

We do not see that many patients, or nurses in this documentary. We see a doctor or two. We see a few patients.

That’s what I find interesting and different about these documentaries, in contrast to Discovery channel and other documentaries. The editing is slow. You have time to observe, to see, to listen, to experience, before it moves on.

In one sequence the guy in a wheel chair goes around the complex, we see him on one road, and then another, and then a third. We also hear laughter from the people watching this documentary.

I am so used to watching documentaries in solitude that the idea of people laughing during a documentary is almost new to me.

Next time I go to Spain I would like to take a little detour and visit the place we see in the film. It interests me. Is the place still busy or did the documentary reflect how it is today? How old are the patients and how much longer does it expect to be around? Can it be used for other health conditions?

Could it be used for hiking and cycling groups?

When writing people often ask "So what?" and I find myself asking the same question after certain documentaries. This is one of those documentaries. "So what happens next", "So how much longer will that community be around"? and more. An answer.

More information

Some history

At its height, Fontilles had up to 400 patients. The place was largely self-sufficient and the patients worked the land, ran the bakery, had butchers, a shoe-maker, book-binding bar and restaurant, cinema and theatre, which have left hilarious as well as deeply moving memories and anecdotes. Of great importance, Fontilles houses a large library and a laboratory where research is currently carried out in collaboration with different universities.

Fontilles (Spain)

Although I went off on a tangent sometimes the value of documentaries is to increase awareness about a topic and encourage us to learn more. As demonstrated by the follow up research I did, quickily, the topic can, and is expanded.