DR. PENELOPE tells the story of JULIA, an introverted graduate student struggling to finish her psychology research finds life disrupted by her mother’s feisty psychic puppet, PENELOPE, who insists on teaching her the importance of intuition and the meaning of human connection.
It is at its heart about a woman struggling to be whole in today’s world.
JULIA wants to make a difference, to be the positive change she would like to see in the world. Despite her strength and compassion, she is lost amid the pressures and barriers many young women face until she learns valuable lessons taught by people she meets through unexpected encounters.
Writer/Director
Annika Hylmö, Ph.D.
Director's Statement / As an academic and a creative, I have always been driven to explore the intersections between the known and the unknown. I have always been fascinated by stories telling tales that give rise to our curiosity about the mystery of faith and our need for logical explanations. Since childhood, I have had an awareness of the existence of something inexplicable in my existence. Much as Julia in DR. PENELOPE experiences a struggle reconciling these different parts of ourselves, I too am looking for ways to reconcile my beliefs into an integrated whole. Not easy in the chaotic world that we live in! DR. PENELOPE explores these themes and their impact on family and community.
Like many, Julia resolves to detach herself emotionally by immersing herself in books and certainty, only to discover that the world is full of contradictions that can only be resolved by developing relationships and connections with other people, no matter how similar or different from herself they may seem. She finds that the only way to live is by accepting the existence of both science and mystery, not by living separately from either. It is a struggle that I think many of us can relate to.
