Beautiful dreamers

Based on historical events, this film is set in London, Canada in 1880 where Dr Maurice Bucke (Colin Feore) is the new Superintendant at the London Asylum for the Insane. Dr Bucke, a sensitive and humane man, is confronted on a daily basis with the barbaric treatment which his medical staff use to restrain the patients at the Institution - confinement, lobotomies, shock treatment and hysterectomies. At a conference in Philadelphia Bucke meets up with one of America’s greatest writers and poets, Walt Whitman (Rip Torn), who is renowned for his avant-garde ideas about love and sexuality and understanding of the mental condition. At Bucke’s invitation, Walt Whitman visits the London Asylum and before long, the two men embark on a journey of reform - a journey that will radically change Bucke’s life forever, with his wife and with his patients. This is a story of a truly remarkable partnership - of passion, kindness and understanding overcoming prejudice, malpractice and misunderstanding of those who suffer from the unfortunate consequences of mental illness. “By 1882 Dr Bucke had removed all forms of restraint used in the London Asylum. A year later he published ‘Walt Whitman, the man’.” Cast also includes Wendel Meldrum, Sheila McCarthy and Colin Fox.