First Lap Crash – Films – Visions du Réel

Liam Erlach
Switzerland | 2026 | 72 min
World premiere
Language : Swiss German
Subtitles : English, French

Amina lives with an invisible chronic illness that has imprisoned her in an exhausted body. To better understand this elusive illness, her brother Liam makes her a room of her own where she can exist as something other than a patient. Between documentary observation and artistic rendering, the film builds a luminous and delicate portrait of a fraternal bond and subjects our able-bodied world to scrutiny.

First Lap Crash brings together the acts of loving and filmmaking. Liam Erlach films his 21-year-old sister Amina, who suffers from chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS/ME), an invisible illness that confines her to her body and her room. From these constraints emerges a space for creation: a “room of her own,” a versatile, almost idyllic studio where Amina can exist as more than just a patient. Outside her room, the family home is under renovation. The motif runs throughout the film: walls come down, seasons pass, birthdays come and go and the construction work progresses slowly… Like her body, the house is in transformation, draft form, suspension. Time transforms; there are no plans, only waiting. Out of shot, the outside world rushes by, breathless and urgent, a contrast that prompts a reflection on illness within a society of able-bodied people. A sensitive and respectful portrait of a luminous and complex young woman, First Lap Crash succeeds in rendering invisible suffering visible. A film about connection, and about how art can become a space for care and recognition.

Anne Delseth

First Lap Crash, 2026
Loner, 2023