Marwencol

Marwencol (2010) is a curious documentary that is mostly about the fictional world that was created by Mark Hogancamp partially as therapy to recover from a savage beating that he received from five men. Marwencol is a fictional Belgian town built to one-sixth scale in his backyard using dolls and creating his own sets and then reenacts an original story of his own creation and photographs scenes that he has staged. Some of the dolls represent people he knows. About halfway through the film, after he has been established as a sympathetic figure, it is revealed that he is a cross-dresser and was beaten savagely because of it. They also reveal that he was mean-spirited, divorced alcoholic. However, little or no attention is given to his past-as to why he divorced or as to why he became an alcoholic, which isn't central to this film's storyline, but are the questions I wanted to know about after seeing the film. There's no denying that he has talent and created an amazing alternate universe in which to express his imagination.