I saw this as a preview and it is due for release on March 3rd.

Positives:

• A good documentary should shine a spotlight on a topic that you have no idea about, and "Electric Malady" did just that. Although I vaguely remember a lot of concern about holding mobile phones up to your head, way back when they first became mainstream, I was not aware of this as a 'condition'.

• William seems to be an extreme case, but you can't help but me moved by his plight: shuffling around his little remote cabin, blankets over his head looking like E. T. at Halloween; his poor parents trying to help in whatever way they can; his obvious despair that his once girlfriend Marie now has a new life, with a husband and kids. It's heartbreaking. And Marie Lidén catches all of that perfectly.

• The opening is cleverly done: the father showing a 'cage' he has built for his own son. Without knowledge of the background, you wonder if you are going to be watching "The Elephant Man" or something!

• At just 84 minutes - a novelty for most of the 'award films' this year! - the film doesn't outstay its welcome.

• It's artfully shot, with nice shots of the Swedish countryside and interesting uses of colour flashing on some of the edits. This is a talented female filmmaker, taking good subject matter and making it great through well-thought-through editing.

• A quote from the WHO in the closing moments is a jaw-dropper and well done.

• Loved the score by John Lemke, especially the quietly persistent piece over the end-titles.

• This is a factual representation of William's life, but it only goes that far. It left me with a lot more questions than answers. Above all, was this "real" in a physical sense? Or were his symptoms purely psychological? As a former scientist, it left me longing for some of the scientific background behind the claims - some talking science heads might have added more to the background. Or even some practical guinea-pig (or perhaps canary) research. I longed for one of the visitors to quietly turn on a wi-fi router inside his Faraday Cage to see if that really did make him feel pain. (By the way, post-watching I was doing some googling and papers seem to certainly suggest this is a real thing, affecting possibly millions of people around the world to a greater or lesser extent).

• Often when I watch a documentary like this, I think of Heisenberg's theory of observation. That is, where research involving measurement or observation directly alters the phenomenon under investigation. There are a few moments in the film - a car reversing out of a drive; the father walking up to the hut and then in through the door, etc. - where (assuming there was only one camera) you saw the filmmaker's camera set-ups. "OK sir - I'll film you coming up to the dooe. Then let me go in and I'll film you coming into the hut". (Echoes of William Hurt's single-camera teary interview in "Broadcast News"!).

William is a man who suffers from an extreme form of electro-sensitivity that has has reduced his life to little more than that of a house-bound, constantly blanket-clad hermit. Unable to spend time outside, his home is covered in aluminium foil and other reflective materials and he wears a hat that consists copper wire to help shield his brain from the effects of this pervasive radiation. It is intimately filmed by Marie Lidén offering us quite a painful-to-watch glimpse of the man's existence that, intercut with some of his earlier, happier, home movie footage with his erstwhile girlfriend, tells a rather sad story. Now, here is my problem with this - and I fully expect to be shot down. Is it real? This man lives is Sweden. One of the most advanced economies in the world. Surely someone would have designed an actual hat, and/or a suit for him to wear that would have offered the same protection and greater mobility than him having to shuffle around attired like a man from an "Addams Family" movie. He is apparently one of three people from the same public library to have contracted this illness in quick succession - yet we don't hear from either of the others. Indeed one - his former partner - appears to have gone on to live a full and fruitful life. Is he just that much more susceptible? There are contributors - but aside from his family, they are lay-people who are unattributed onscreen. There are no medical or scientific personnel participating here to offer us any explanation as to just what "radiation" actually might be, or to put some context around this man's undoubtedly depressing predicament. It is an interesting watch, but as it progressed - the distinct lack of scientific and/or medical critique and/or validation lead me to wonder if this could even be an hoax!