Documentary - Fighting Against the Unknown

HOW CAN YOU DENY FOOD TO YOUR OWN SON?

How can you explain to him that people need to eat in order to survive, but that he cannot eat? Kontxi has to go through this every day. She's had to struggle against something that doesn't even have a name for the last seven years: her son Garikoitz' illness. At his birth, they discovered that he was allergic to every food he ate. The only thing he can eat is a substance made of amino acids based on maternal milk principles.

There is a saying that goes: not only the sick person suffers the illness, but also those who surround him. This documentary tries to show the world this family's struggle. The survival of a this child thanks to all the people who love him.

Everyday life has a great number of challenging situations. The illness is ever present in every ordinary issues, but Kontxi knows that she is doing everything in her hand for her child, with the support and help of her husband Pablo, and their elder daughter Itzaro. And Ana is also present. She is Mikel's mother, a boy who suffers the same illness as Garikoitz. They both created Garmitxa association. Their purpose is to let the world see thier children's situation and try to give hope to those who may come after them, even though, as Kontxi says, she knows that her son Garikoitz is not going to benefit from their achievements.

Fighting Against the Unknown, is the voice of a mother who doesn't give up and keeps on fighting for her son, with the same might that he does.

We consider that this is a tale worth telling, because of the strength of this family as well as because of the need of making rare diseases known by the general public, as the only way to eventually get them researched on. I's complicated to try to explain something that doesn't even have a name, but it's not impossible. To achieve this, we will follow Kontxi in her daily life, to be able to understand what this means for a mother. We would like to show a realistic approach to them, without sensationalism, with the respect that the relation of a mother and her child should have, with a close and warm focus.

AS A RESULT

Fighting Against the Unknown, is a multimedia documentary project. So, we what to tell the story of Kontxi and Garikoitz in a double format: a short film to distribute on the Internet and a medium-lenght film to show in festivals and TV.

ABOUT US

We are Ana Palou, Lucía Pascual, Angélica Fontes de Albornoz and Isabel Grábalos. Four young filmmakers that still believe that art can change the world.

The money collected will be used for traveling to the filming location, accommodation and other needs as well as it's later distribution.