Sometimes the movies we see in the cinema have only the function of entertaining us. But others serve to talk about different social or even health problems that affect many people in the world.
A new film by award-winning Julia Roberts shows the reality of a family whose son suffers from a particular syndrome and how the little one overcomes the prejudices of the society that surrounds him.
The film Wonder (Maravilla), based on the best seller of the NY Times written by RJ Palacio, stars Julia Roberts, Jacob Tremblai and Owen Wilson. It exposes the problem of a ten-year-old boy who suffers from Treacher Collins Syndrome, a congenital genetic disorder that causes craniofacial deformities.
The film shows the cruel look of society and, on the other, the series of surgeries that these people must face to improve their quality of life.
Wonder was released in theaters on November 17, has grossed $156 million worldwide and had a $20 million budget.
What is Treacher Collins syndrome?
Treacher Collins syndrome is a genetic disease characterized by craniofacial malformations such as absent cheekbones. Its cause is a mutation of a gene on chromosome 5 and can be spontaneous or by hereditary transmission of the defective gene, which prevents the correct formation of the bones of the skull, cheekbones and jaw. This pattern of inheritance is called “dominant” and it affects males and females equally (autosomal).
This condition affects 1 in 50,000 births. In 45% of cases it is hereditary, due to the transmission of the defective gene. In the remaining 55% of cases, the mutation is spontaneous, and the cause is unknown.
It is named after the English surgeon and ophthalmologist Edward Treacher Collins, who described its essential features in the year 1900. In 1949 A. Franceschetti and D. Klein described the same features in their own observations of the disease, which they named mandibulofacial dysostosis.