IMDb RATING
7.3/10
2.2K
YOUR RATING
A documentary on Henry Darger, visionary artist, janitor, and novelist.A documentary on Henry Darger, visionary artist, janitor, and novelist.A documentary on Henry Darger, visionary artist, janitor, and novelist.
IMDb RATING
7.3/10
2.2K
YOUR RATING
- Director
- Writers
- Henry Darger(writings)
- Jessica Yu
- Stars
- Henry Darger
- Dakota Fanning(voice)
- Larry Pine(voice)
Top credits
- Director
- Writers
- Henry Darger(writings)
- Jessica Yu
- Stars
- Henry Darger
- Dakota Fanning(voice)
- Larry Pine(voice)
- Nominated for 1 Primetime Emmy
- 2 wins & 6 nominations total
Videos1
- Director
- Writers
- Henry Darger(writings)
- Jessica Yu
- All cast & crew
- See more cast details at IMDbPro
Storyline
Henry Darger worked all his life in menial jobs in Chicago. Living alone and in poverty, he had no friends or close family. Spending all his off hours alone, he whiled away the hours working on a 15,000 page illustrated novel called The Realms of the Unreal. A stunning amalgam of religious imagery, fantasy, and heroic drama, the work was only discovered after Darger was moved to a hospital during the last days of his life. Darger also wrote journals and an autobiography. The documentary uses interviews with Darger's neighbors and narration of passages from his works, along with his illustrations, to explore the mind and work of Henry Darger. —Ken Miller <wkmiller704@yahoo.com>
- Genres
- Certificate
- Unrated
- Parents guide
Did you know
- Quotes
[last lines]
[end title cards]
Title Card: After Darger's death in 1973, the Lerners decided to share their discovery of his work, preserving his room and its contents.
Title Card: Since then, Henry Darger's work has been exhibited and collected worldwide. His art has inspired the creation of paintings, poetry, music, and works in theatre, dance, and opera.
Title Card: The room was dismantled in 2000.
Top review
A Different Kind of Beautiful Mind
I remember hearing about Henry Darger several years ago, but the article I read back then was brief and I was disturbed by images of little girls being strangled in his art. I was eager to see a documentary that would more fully explain his art. I thought the film did a very good job of providing insight to his work - how his traumatic early life led to the themes of his obsessive artwork, how the torture of the little girls probably references his own feelings of feeling tortured in his own life, clues to why he drew penises on all his little blonde girls --"the Vivians," his basic sense of himself as an "innocent," his attempt to adopt children, how he created a secret world for himself, complete with talking to himself in different voices, etc. A much more interesting look into mental illness in some ways than the movie A Beautiful Mind.
helpful•129
- jiffyxpop
- May 24, 2004
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Official sites
- Language
- Also known as
- In the Realms of the Unreal: The Mystery of Henry Darger
- Filming locations
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Gross US & Canada
- $417,120
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $15,477
- Dec 26, 2004
- Gross worldwide
- $417,120
- Runtime1 hour 21 minutes
- Color
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content

Top Gap
By what name was In the Realms of the Unreal (2004) officially released in Canada in English?
AnswerRecently viewed
Please enable browser cookies to use this feature. Learn more.













