Lucca’s World (Los dos hemisferios de Lucca) comes from Mexico. It’s a story about a child born with Cerebral palsy and epilepsy to a mother who thinks his illness is her fault. This drives her determination to do something about his situation.

Lucca’s World begins with Bárbara (Bárbara Mori) giving birth to Lucca (Julián Tello). She passes out just before the final push. She blames his condition on her failure. She struggles for years with doctors and therapies for Lucca, but nothing helps. She and her husband, Andrés (Juan Pablo Medina), have another younger son who is healthy.

Bárbara worked as a journalist at a magazine. She interviewed a man who told her about a Mexican doctor working in India using a machine called a cyclotron that he thought could help Lucca.

Lucca’s World is based on the true story of Lucca’s illness as told in the book by Bárbara Anderson. At the time of the story, the cyclotron in India was the only choice. There are several in the U.S. and Mexico now, partly because of Bárbara Anderson’s activism. However they are mostly used for cancer treatment. I couldn’t find any references to Cerebral palsy.

In the film, the whole family risks everything to make the very expensive trip to India. Even the nanny goes. A kind of shady character named Dr. Jaramillo is the connection between the family and the supposed inventor of the cyclotron Dr. Kumar. There were a lot of red flags in the situation to me, but the treatment helped Lucca. He became verbal and could control his muscles to a limited degree. It was a huge change.

Once they were back in Mexico, Bárbara worked to get the treatment brought closer to home. She also learned some things about Lucca’s birth that made a difference to her.

The film, directed by Mariana Chenillo, was a straight-forward retelling of the book Bárbara wrote, with frequent quotes from it. There were photos of the real family shown in the credits.

This inspiring story about a mother’s love and determination is streaming on Netflix. It wasn’t a great movie, but if this type of story appeals to you it is a moving choice to watch.