Caterpillar
Written and Directed by Dorny Sunday.
Funded and Supported by BFI Network and Film Hub North.
Ellis and her mother Maggie live together in a bungalow. Maggie was once a capable dancer, but after receiving a diagnosis of motor neurone disease one year ago, she’s now paralysed and suffers from locked-in syndrome. Her body is now frail and vulnerable. Maggie’s daughter Ellis is her primary carer; who’s both ignited and beleaguered by the suffering she sees up close every day. Striving for meaning, but struggling to find respite from the constant stress of what’s to come.
Whilst Ellis reaches for more outside of her caregiver existence, the internal conflict within reaches heights she struggles to contend with.
Written and directed by Dorny Sunday, the film was inspired by Dorny’s experience working as a carer and explores the challenges people face trying to progress their own lives whilst having to care for someone else.
“Motor Neurone Disease (MND) is a rare disease that affects around two in every 100,000 people in the UK each year.
Those who are diagnosed with MND are given an average of 1 - 3 years and it leaves the person in a ‘locked-in’ state.
It’s been my intention to faithfully portray the psycho-social consequences of a family unit hit by an MND diagnosis. And to tell a story that steers away from previous anodyne representations of the disease in cinema.
My first hand-hand experience of both being a carer for someone with MND and an artist pursuing a craft informed the journey we see in Caterpillar. Paving the way for the story of a mother and daughter, battling an invisible force that doesn’t abide by reason, and wasn’t able to be processed by human logic.”