Editor’s Pitch

Bodies have been the subject for admiration, sexualisation, derision and of course competition - the rules ever changing throughout centuries and across cultures. But the West’s obsession with body shapes isn’t necessarily the core of anorexia, and as this down-to-earth and often painful film shows, it’s a disease that can attack without warning, for women as well as for men. Bravely investigated by a previous sufferer, this is a set of stories you can’t fail to be moved by.


Starting with the tragic recollection of two parent’s experience of their daughter’s losing battle with her weight, Facing Anorexia is an eye-opening portrait of girls and young women on the edge of life, their only issue apparently being what they do or do not put into their mouths.

But as filmmaker and ex-anorexia sufferer Jessica Villerius discovers, anorexia nervosa is mental illness that has its roots in control and self-image - one that can start in many ways.

The loss of a parent, a jibe from classmates about your figure, other parts of your life being unhappy – it’s the drive for bringing order and a form of safety to someone’s emotional stability that can ultimately become a prison and, for some, a death sentence.

Villerius visits young women in various stages of their illness and finds out about the types of treatments they’re receiving to help them at the very least, not get any thinner. All are aware of the battle in their mind – some literally hear voices, others are afraid to put on weight because the moment they do is the moment they start to feel human again – to feel frightening emotions. Eating a Mars Bar is one of the scariest things one of the girls has to do as she begins to reach a target body weight for her recovery programme.

Facing Anorexia explores the journeys that too many people go through across the world, and will continue to do, some for years, some until they’re unable to fight any more. Yet Villerius proves by her own presence that the illness can be beaten, that people can and do get better. It all begins with understanding by others – and then there’s real hope for positive change.