
Mawrencol is the story of Mark Hogancamp. A man who lost his memory after being brutally attacked outside of a bar 9 years ago. The beating was so bad that not only did he lose his memory, but he lost his the ability to write, walk and a lot of the other basic fucntions we take for granted every day. Over time he re-learns all the basic human functions i mentioned earlier, but still lacked the psychological help needed (he couldn't afford the therapy). To cope with the psychological trauma that still haunts him from the beating, he created his own kind of unique therapy. He built a fictitious 1/6 scale model town called; Mawrencol, complete with bars, stores, a strip club, church and dolls that represent people in his real life (Hogancamp himself, his mother, friends, co-workers, made up people and even the men who attacked him years ago). The major difference between the fake town of Marwencol and Hogancamp's real life, is that Marwencol is set just after world war 2 (late 1940's). All of the men in the town are soldiers in the military (US, British and German), dressed in detailed military uniforms. The US soldier figurines represent the good guys, and the Nazi Officers represent the bad people in the town. As the documentary goes on, we clearly see that the Nazi figures specifically represent the men who attacked him.
Although the documentary is under 90 minutes, you still feel like you've watched two movies. And i mean that in a good way. On one level, you have a documentary about a man working out his demons. On another level, we have the town of Marwencol and all the adventures that Hogancamp acts out (similar to a child playing with action figures, altho in Hogancamp's case its obviously a lot more serious). Some the adventures that Hogancamp re-enacts with the figures of Marwencol include; battles with the Nazi figures, cat fights between the women (barbie dolls) of Marwencol and one adventure in particular that clearly represent his attack in real life.

This definitely the best documentary I've seen so far this year. Mark Hogancamp is quite the character himself, reminiscent of a subject that Errol Morris might document in one of his films. The documentary itself; a man dealing the psychological trauma of memory loss after a brutal attack reminded me of some of Herzog's documentaries, specifically; Little Dieter Needs to Fly and Wings of Hope. This should not be missed.