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The Moscow News. A few years ago, an autistic boy named Anton wrote an essay about life

A few years ago, an autistic boy named Anton wrote an essay about life. "People rush. People swear," it reads. "Now happy. Now serious. People bang and rattle. They're not shaggy. They get lost. Ginger. Deep. They skin things. People renovate houses and barns. People will endure a bit more...People are finite. People fly."

Anton's unexpected expression of intuition and comprehensiveness attracted the attention of Lyubov Arkus, a Russian film critic. After meeting the author, a frenetic self-harmer who barely spoke, much less wrote, Arkus was stunned that a boy who could seem so disconnected from his surroundings could articulate such insight.

The essay became the initial inspiration for "Anton's Right Here," Arkus's devastatingly intense documentary which follows the life of a Russian autistic child through trauma, institutions, and an often cold reception from those who surround him.

"Anton's Right Here" is one expression of a steady social effort to spread awareness of autism. Last week, on World Autism Awareness Day, it won a Nika Award - one of Russia's top movie honors.

While no official statistics are available, estimates say Russia contains upwards of 200,000 autistic individuals. Diagnosis and treatment of conditions like autism presents a particular challenge in Russia, and Anton's story is just one drop in a sea of the world's struggle to comprehend.

Raising awareness of autism is an ongoing process taking place in Russia and all over the world - one that's come a long way from 20 years ago, but still has miles to go.

‘Defective'

Understanding of the condition, driven mainly by lack of information, is often wanting in the social community.

Roman, a Muscovite in his early 30s who asked that his last name not be identified, adopted an autistic child - a boy from his wife's previous relationship - when he married.

"I never thought my parents were prejudiced [against people with autism], so it was shocking to me when my own family wanted nothing to do with me when I adopted my son," Roman told The Moscow News. "My mother actually used the word ‘defective' when describing my adopted son."

Roman's parents vehemently opposed Roman's assumption of care of a person whom they considered to be less than whole, and his mother barely spoke to him for a year afterwards. Being forced to decide between his mother and his new family was difficult, Roman said, but "as a man, you have to put your foot down eventually...I knew I had no choice."

Roman and his mother have now reconciled, to an extent, due to her advancing age and ill health. Yet Roman's experience remains a stark example of Russia's social incomprehension and, occasionally, even downright prejudice towards people with special needs.

Autism as a medical diagnosis didn't even exist until about 10 to 15 years ago, Yekaterina Men, president of Moscow's Center for Autistic Problems (ANO), told The Moscow News. Previously, it was diagnosed as schizophrenia and treated with medication.

"For 90 percent of people, ‘autism' is just a modern word for ‘schizophrenia,'" Men said.

Even now, autism exists on paper in Russia only as an "early childhood" medical condition. The existence of autistic adults is not officially acknowledged.

Doctors' inability to diagnose autism in adults, Men said, is "a disgrace." "It's like a person who has had diabetes their whole life going to the doctor at age 18 and being diagnosed with asthma, because diabetes is a ‘children's' disease," she said.

Men's organization, ANO, is working with another non-profit, Vykhod, to appeal for an official government-approved diagnosis of adult autism.

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