Most able-bodied people don’t know what to say to 23-year-old Vera (Lucia Zemene) in the months following a traffic collision that left her without a leg, but one empty platitude really stands out: A friend suggests that maybe it happened for a reason. Haunted by this thought, she eventually asks a fellow young wheelchair user if he agrees, and he does. “The reason,” he says, “is that a truck crashed into you.” That reply captures the refreshingly direct, no-bullshit tone of Mari Sanders‘ “Stand Up,” a Dutch drama that seeks to cut through the condescending sentimentality that often characterizes portraits of disability on screen, and instead trades in more straightforward truths.
That approach begins with the casting of young actor-musician Zemene, a real-life amputee who lost her leg in similar circumstances to Vera. She and her director, who himself uses a wheelchair, bring not just lived experience but a lively, varied palette of feeling to the material. Though it tells a simple story in unadorned fashion, it’s the frank, often funny authenticity of perspective in “Stand Up” that lifts it from the familiar. Following a premiere in the international narrative competition at Tribeca, Sanders’ thoroughly accessible, audience-friendly film should be a popular selection on the fest circuit, and merits thoughtful handling by inclusivity-minded distributors.
