Abstract: This short animated film is a journey into the inner world of Maria, a teenager with autism, and into her parent’s experience with raising her. Her father’s narration conveys the way Maria perceives and handles her own reality, with organization, creativity, and a hypnotizing smile.

Details: The short film starts by playing a lullaby in the background, showing a typical drawing of a baby transported by a stork. Suddenly, the music goes out of tune, and the voice-over of Maria’s father starts talking, accompanied by animated illustrations. Maria is not a regular child. In fact, he says that she has not been brought by the stork; she actually came from a planet far away, like a superhero. He describes the moments in which he and his wife started realizing that something was wrong with their baby. She seemed isolated from reality; she was not responding or reacting to their hugs. Instead of playing with dolls and toys, she would just line them up. It took a lot of time and many doctor appointments before she was finally diagnosed with autism. On this journey, they did not feel alone, though, since they met many other parents who were going through the same situation. He fasts forward 15 years to the present, and Maria is a joyful teenager who lives in the Canarias Islands. Her mind works a bit differently, and therefore, she handles reality in a different way. For instance, she needs to classify and organize reality through pictograms and plan every moment of her everyday life in order to prevent any unexpected events. She finds many simple activities very difficult, like tying her shoes, zipping up a hoodie, taking a shower by herself, making a phone call, opening a can, or switching channels on the TV. However, she also has “superpowers”: she can concentrate a lot while she eats, her smile is hypnotizing, and she has an amazing memory, especially for people’s names. Reality can be overwhelming, and she perceives it in a confusing and aggressive way. That is the reason why she isolates and hides in her imaginary universe with imaginary friends. Here, her repetitive games and actions protect her. Her parents try to focus on the present and patiently help her develop her own independence. Finally, he concludes that Maria helps the world become a better place.