The Man Whose Mind Exploded
The Man Whose Mind Exploded
| 13 June 2014 (USA)
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In this "beautifully intimate and utterly unique piece of cinema", Toby Amies crosses the line between filmmaker and carer, trying to cope with the strange and hilarious world view of the fragile eccentric, Drako Zarharzar. A love story. Drako Oho Zaraharzar can remember modeling for Salvador Dali and hanging out with The Stones. But he can’t remember yesterday. Following a severe head injury, Drako Zaraharzar suffers from terrible memory loss, he can access memories from before his accident, but can’t imprint new ones. As he puts it, “the recording machine in my head doesn’t work”. Consequently, and as an antidote to depression he chose to live “completely in the now” according to the bizarre mottoes delivered to him whilst in a coma.

Reviews
Hulkeasexo

it is the rare 'crazy' movie that actually has something to say.

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Mischa Redfern

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

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Frances Chung

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

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Celia

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

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harry-hall

Director TOBY AMIES has created a fascinating portrait of a survivor. But not the predictable, poor-poor-me survivor that one would encounter in most documentaries."THE MAN WHOSE MIND EXPLODED" does not dwell in the past, nor does it wallow in a parade of sordid sob stories and tragedies. DRAKO, the seventy five year old eccentric subject of the film is not a victim. He is a vibrant individual who lives in the now. By his own rules. Wildly. Colorfully. Unabashedly. With no guilt or shame (or short term memory, for that matter).Having lived through the 60's as a jazz ballet dancer and one time model for Salvador Dali, he was a performance artist BEFORE there were performance artists. Heavily tattooed, pierced and with a Dali-esque waxed mustache, he is a a kind of S&M version of Quentin Crisp. Although experiencing 2 suicide attempts, a number of brain injuries, a few near death experiences and a series of nervous breakdowns---too many to count, he remains positive, and firmly in the present. Living life as Art --- with the world as his Theater.The Director doesn't handle him with kid gloves, but as an equal. And that is why this film is so magical and REAL. A bold portrait of a man whose mind exploded, but his personality and outlook on life remained strangely intact . . . positive . . . looking to the future!To quote the tattoo on his wrist: "TRUST ABSOLUTE UNCONDITIONAL"

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tobelievewithoutseeing

This documentary brings you into the life of Drako Oho Zarhazar and brings Drako directly into your heart. Sometimes in life you find characters that change your perspective and inspire pure love and faith, this is one such character and this film is just a snippet of his full and free life. Filmed over 4 years in and around his home, this documentary allows the viewer into Drako's most personal space and gives them a very real and very raw look at some of his most personal and trying medical conditions, one of which is a type of amnesia that doesn't allow him to record new memories. Watching this film one can't help but to truly care for Drako, laughing with him when he laughs and feeling the fear and frustration that his family and friends feel when he does what he has always done and just disappears only to return with no memory of where he's been. Drako leaves us with a message that may become your mantra, "Trust. Absolute. Unconditional." "Life has it's own validity, but you must make an effort."

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runamokprods

A singular documentary, Filmmaker Tobey Amies befriended a truly odd and unique person and decided to make a film about him; an ailing, obese man in his 70s who has dubbed himself Drako Oho Zarhazar. Drako is a colorful character who once was a handsome dancer, a sexy motorcycle kid who knew Salvador Dali, and drank and glowered and ran on the dark side. Now, heavy and bald, covered in tattoos, he wears a Dali-esque wax mustache along with tons of playful make up; a flamboyantly gay man surrounded by photos everywhere of young men with giant erections, a hoarder, and most importantly a man who has survived two serious accidents, both of which left him in a coma. Since those incidents he suffers from anterograde amnesia, leaving him with little short to mid term memory. He tells the same stories over and over. He forgets who people are, including our story-teller, he can be heartbreaking, stubborn, and embarrassing in his weird exhibitionism. And yet, as sad a character as he is, there is also something unique and joyful. Deprived of a past, he lives in the moment, each face, each exchange, each experience something new. He can get confused or depressed but in the end his attitude is one of loving each moment. He repeats a mantra over and over again. He has it tattooed into his arm: "Trust. Absolute. Unconditional". He may be impossible to 'save' or even to help much, but maybe in different ways ways so are the rest of us.To love and be accepting and kind is a lesson he gave to those who knew him. And - thanks to this rough hewn film - to us. That's not a bad legacy.

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Dominic Pillai

I loved this film, it is an extremely touching and funny piece of work.I related strongly with the relationship between Drako and the filmmaker Toby Amies. I am also a filmmaker that works closely with adults with a variety of disabilities, including people with short term memory loss due to a coma, same as Drako. It would have been easy for someone to make an exploitative film with this subject matter, but here it is certainly not the case. Toby Amies has made a genuinely humane, affectionate and original piece of work. A film as good as this deserves a larger cinematic release.

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