Movie Adaptation of The Horse Boy

In the movie adaptation of The horse boy, filmmaker Michel Orion Scott chronicles Rupert Isaacson and Kristin Neff’s very personal odyssey as they struggle to make sense of their child's autism and find healing for him and themselves in the unlikeliest of places. The horse boy will air on the PBS series Independent Lens on Tuesday, May 11, at 10pm.

The horse boy follows Rupert, Kristin and Rowan through the summer of 2007 as they traverse Mongolia on their quest. From the wild open Steppe to the sacred Lake Sharga, and deep into Siberia, they are tested to their limits individually, as a couple, and as a family. They find their son is accepted, even treasured for his differences. In a world steeped in mystical tradition, Rowan makes dramatic leaps forward, astonishing both his parents and himself.

The film also includes interviews with some of the foremost experts in the field of autism, including: Dr. Simon Baron-Cohen of the Autism Research Centre at Cambridge University, anthropologist Roy Richard Grinker, and Dr. Temple Grandin.

The horse boy is part travel adventure, part insight into shamanic tradition, and part inner quest. In telling one family’s extraordinary story, the film gives voice to the thousands of families who display amazing courage and creativity everyday in the battle against this mysterious and heartbreaking epidemic.

In the month leading up to the premier, you can prepare for the movie by checking out the original text from the CeDIR Library: Rupert Isaacson's The horse boy : a father's quest to heal his son.