The Desert Of The Real
A uniquely crafted documentary by Luuk Bouwman (De Propagandist) in which six people who have experienced psychosis take the viewer through their experiences. An intriguing exploration of the fine line between dream and reality.
Who am I? What is real? How can one live amidst the madness of the world? These are questions posed by six people who have experienced psychosis and speak candidly about it. What they have in common is that, at a certain point, their lives came under severe personal and social pressure. And they all share a profound reflection on what the psychosis has meant to them and how they view the world since then.
The Desert Of The Real, one of the audience favourites at the most recent edition of IDFA, takes the viewer on a journey through their lives before the life-changing event, the psychosis itself, the intensive treatment and the long road to recovery. The disarming and emotional interviews are interspersed with staged sequences that reflect the interviewees’ experiences during their psychosis. Living rooms and clinics serve as backdrops. The distinctive visual style is inspired by science fiction and horror films. The documentary sheds a clear light on what it is like to experience psychosis, and raises questions about how we, as a society, treat one another. One of the interviewees therefore suggests viewing psychosis as ‘a normal reaction to a completely deranged society.’