Dear Stephen
Your film 'The Secret Life of The Manic Depressive' made an indelible impression on me. In addition to the history of your illness (life?) is very similar to mine, in this movie I first saw and heard the answers to many questions that plagued me from the moment of diagnosis.
Here in Russia, almost no one saw your movie. But there are a lot of people who should. In Russia, an equally high percentage of patients with bipolar disorder, as in Britain. And that means that the patients and their relatives can be thankful to the audience the film. But it is not translated into Russian and is not demonstrated on any television channel Russia.
It's very hard to find information about bipolar disorder outside of specialized books on psychiatry. Only on the Internet, on various disparate forums Russians can read about the experiences of patients. Surely it's not enough.
I'm only 25 years old, not 37 yet. But while I did not know about the diagnosis and didn't worked on myself, there was a lot of sad, and the loss of the closest man for me, a person who could help me. So I am fighting. And I want as many people understand what this disease means, how to live with it. I want people to understand - it's possible to live with it productively, and not always - taking pills or throwing from the roofs of houses. I want people searching "can we live with bipolar disorder patients" found the right answer to their question. I want patients appeared answers to their questions and their families, - faith in people and that disordered man is not disabled, but the same good man, like everyone else.
Your film provides answers to many questions, gives hope and faith.
I know English quite well, but I did not dare to make Russian subtitles, because my "quite well" is certainly no comparison with your ideal. So I made a retelling of both series with the retelling of key moments - and a lot of screenshots. Then I made a separate site bipolar.stephenfry.ru, which has laid out the same story. Now, together with several professional psychiatrists, we are preparing a useful scientific and popular content. We've started Twitter blog @bipolar_ru and Facebook Cause.
I have a few requests, Stephen. First of all, could you send me 1 DVD with the movie, so our volunteers can use subtitles and make a professional translation into Russian? Also - could you write a short welcome speech to all the Russians, for whom bipolar disorder - a problem that they would like to fight?
Thank you in advance, Stephen.
I hope that you will read this message. And sorry for some mistakes in it.
Igor Denisov
