“Luisa” at the 61st Chicago International Film Festival.
Luisa, which is showing at the 61st Chicago International Film Festival, follows the path of a resident of a home for people with disabilities. Written, directed and produced by German director Julia Roesel on a budget of $10,000, the lead character, Luisa Shulze (Celina Scharff) is, herself, a person with developmental issues and mild disabilities. The very unusual step of casting 10 residents who were actually developmentally disabled and 10 who were not makes this group home very authentic.
PLOT
Luisa normally has a 100-watt smile and even has a boyfriend, Anton (Dennis Seidel), with whom she shares her unit. The plot establishes that Anton, a Downs Syndrome adult, is infertile, so the question of the film is, “Who impregnated Luisa?” Sexual abuse does occur in group homes. Was this sexual abuse, and, if so, who is responsible and what will be the consequences for the individual and for the group home?
CHARACTERS
Many suspects could be guilty and, yes, we finally do learn who the culprit is, but we also learn that the Headmaster had been warned much, much sooner about this individual’s inappropriate touching, by Alex (Lina Strothmam) but dismissed the complaint as confusion on the resident’s part. The most prominent residents, besides Luisa and Anton, are Otto (Michael Schumacher), Gisela (Melanie Lux) and Monika (Noa Michalski).
CONCLUSION
This one hit all the right notes. Prior to shooting, much research into actual group home problems and situations was done. It shows. “Luisa” is showing at the New City AMC on Sunday, October 19th at 3 p.m. and on Monday, October 20th at 12:15 p.m. at the 61st Chicago International Film Festival, which starts officially on October 16th and runs through October 26th.
One of the big films is “Train Dreams,” which I saw at Sundance and reviewed here: https://www.weeklywilson.com/train-dreams-is-break-out-film-at-sundance-2025/
