Educational Media Reviews Online

The relationship between patients and mental health professionals is extremely complex. This production in Dutch with English subtitles focuses on that complex doctor-patient relationship. The content of the film is based on a series of interviews with nine patients who have participated in a variety of therapies addressing issues from suicide, sexual abuse, obsessive compulsive disorder, to paranoia, mania and other disorders. The film portrays those therapy sessions almost in an art-like docu-drama format using therapy sessions and highly emotive one-on-one sessions to illustrate both the potential positive and negative therapeutic role. The original interview content provides the basis for the film’s direction, and conceptual content. However, individuals in the film are used interchangeably as different patients, as well as, doctors. This artist license coupled with the rapid pace, the complex topical nature of the subject, and trying to follow subtitles impacts on the overall effectiveness of the film.