Psychosis in Stockholm

[derwent_f]

CW: discussion of psychotic breaks

I recently had the opportunity to watch this poignant film, and I can't get it out of my head.

In many ways, it reminds me of Saving Francesca, which I stumbled upon as a teenager and which plays a formative role in my life. Both are about teenage girls dealing with their mothers' mental illnesses. Both works don't pull their punches when depicting the realities of mental health issues, and both offer hope at the end.

Psychosis in Stockholm tells the story of a girl and her mother (who remain unnamed) as they visit Stockholm to celebrate the girl's 14th birthday. It's clear, however, even from the first scene, that the mother's psychosis is rearing its head up. Things deteriorate, and the mother ends up being taken to a hospital, leaving the daughter to wander the city on her own.

It's a gripping portrait of a daughter who's forced to be the adult in the relationship. The way she tries to get her mother to take her meds, while her face already shows that she knows it's an exercise in futility (it's not the first time the mother has a psychotic break).

Three scenes that keep replaying themselves in my mind:

1. The night the daughter turns 14, she visits the park they planned to. It's empty, and she breaks into some of the rides. It's a long, quiet scene that perfectly articulates the isolation the daughter feels.
2. One morning, the daughter goes to her estranged father's house. Again, she breaks into the house, walks around, steals his sweater. Then she looks at all the pictures of his father and his family, happy and smiling. Before she leaves, she picks up one of the photos and takes a picture of her father in it, covering up his wife's face beside him.
3. Earlier in the film, the mother, already deep in her psychosis, sees a choir singing at a park and dances to the song, drawing attention and frustrating the daughter. Near the end of the film, the daughter sees the same choir singing. She stands there and begins conducting them, with the camera zooming into her smiling face.

The director based the film from her own experience. In fact, the film begins and ends with the director and her mother talking about that episode in their life.

It's a beautiful film, and I hope it gets played widely.