De regels van Matthijs

Director Marc Schmidt films his old friend Matthijs, an autistic man desperately trying to make order out of the chaos around him. Schmidt follows Matthijs from up close, often at home. There, an apparent mess of notes, jars and loose wires is oddly enough a safe haven for the occupant. Explosive confrontations with the outside world alternate with stylised observations and personal outpourings by Matthijs. Why some words drive him nuts, about his interaction with the camera, about his mood swings and what the difference is between ‘non-autistic people’ and an autistic man who finds it hard to fathom what people really say behind their words. Bit by bit, the film unravels Matthijs’ complex mental world and shows the catastrophic consequences this eventually has for him.