First conceived as a short film in the wake of a year she spent in the sanatorium, Heu continued visiting over two decades, nurturing a deep bond with its inhabitants. What emerges is an intimate portrait – not of leprosy as tragedy, but rather of lives lived in resolute defiance of systemic exclusion. Unadorned yet profoundly moving, Island of the Winds lays bare ableist structures, and honours its subjects’ ongoing fight for dignity and right to visibility.