Completed - ENGLISH - Drama, Historical, Biography - 120 minutes
MAD TO BE NORMAL tells the story of the controversial, yet revolutionary, Scottish psychiatrist R.D. Laing and the infamous community he created in Kingsley Hall, East London- a medication free asylum which made headlines around the world during the 1960s.
Year of production : 2016 Director(s) : Robert MULLAN Writer(s) : Robert MULLAN Cast : David TENNANT, Elisabeth MOSS, David BAMBER, Michael GAMBON, Gabriel BYRNE Producer(s) : Charlotte ARDEN (Gizmo Films ), Phineas GLYNN (369 PRODUCTIONS), Peter DUNPHY (GIZMO FILMS), Alan LATHAM (GSP STUDIOS INTERNATIONAL)
1967. It’s the summer of love but revolution is in the air. R.D. Laing is young, ambitious and devastatingly charismatic. Young women want to sleep with him, men want to be him. He takes LSD, and thinks others might like it to. Audiences are either spellbound, or outraged to the point of violence. He’s not a rock star, he’s not a poet - he’s a psychiatrist, a cult figure; some say he’s a very dangerous man. During the 1960’s, lunatic asylums are hell for their patients. There is no cure, no escape and the treatment -powerful drugs, electric shocks to the brain, insulin, and icepick lobotomies- are worse than the illness itself. Laing was a celebrity – crowds flocked to see him in London’s Roundhouse and elsewhere. His reading at Ronnie Scott’s attracted London’s intellectual glitterati. He’s regularly interviewed by the BBC and debates his methods with the establishment, represented by the Royal College of Psychiatry.In his experimental household in Kingsley Hall in London’s East End, he allows people to be themselves and to explore their own illness. If this entails someone dancing naked on the roof, or remaining silent in his or her own room, then so be it. These people had spent all their lives living someone else’s way; now was the time to do it their way.
Country(ies) : UNITED KINGDOM Start of shooting : January 2016
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Glasgow Film Festival 2017 (Closing Gala Premiere)Galway Film Fleadh 2017 (Best International Feature: Feature Film Award (Won))Galway Film Fleadh 2017 (Best International Film: Feature Film Award (Won))Newport Beach Film Festvial 2017 (Outstanding Achievement in Filmmaking - Acting: David Tennant (Won))