By Dinesh Das Sabu
According to the National Institute of Mental Health, roughly 1% of the US population is affected by schizophrenia, and, there is a proven genetic component to the illness. Some research has also pointed to a link between "acculturative stress" - the kind of stress immigrants experience adjusting to a new life - and the onset of mental illness.
Unbroken Glass is filmmaker Dinesh Das Sabu's attempt to piece together the circumstances surrounding his parents death twenty years ago - at the center of which is his mother's schizophrenia and suicide.
Traveling to India and across the United States, the film weaves together his journey of discovery (a mismatched marriage, the hardships of immigration, early symptoms unrecognized, a history of mental illness in his family, and especially, how this condition was dealt with in an age and culture where mental illness was often misunderstood) with cinema-verite scenes of his family still coping with their deaths.
Through this powerfully intimate and moving film, Dinesh hopes that his story will raise awareness and reduce the stigma of mental illness, while at the same time empower suicide survivors and families of the mentally ill to share their stories.
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