Life Overtakes Me (2019) User Reviews

Tedious use of screen time

[nehpetstephen · 5/10 · 29 December 2019]

This is a very interesting subject, and some of the photography is gorgeous (namely, the overhead shots of the snowcapped forests), but the documentarians largely squander their 39 minutes of running time, leaving too many unresolved questions for the film to feel satisfying.

Resignation Syndrome is apparently a disorder in which children who have undergone traumatic experiences retreat into a catatonic state that could last months or even years. The children awaken once stability has been achieved within the family. This disorder was not recorded until the 1990s, and it has only happened in Sweden and in Nauru (an island territory off the coast of Australia; it has not happened in mainland Australia, as the film suggests at the end). For the most part, it seems only to affect the children of refugees from the Balkans or former Soviet states. I'm not denying that the symptoms of this disorder are very real and that the effect on the families is quite painful and costly, but it seems rather obvious that this is a culture-specific illness, somehow related to ideological influence. The documentary hints at this very briefly in an ambiguous voiceover, but such details could be easily missed.

I would've preferred a documentary that more rigorously explored the medical science behind this condition, the roots and history of its existence, and its relation to other disorders of questionable biological epidemiology (like "koro" in China or the South Korean belief in "fan death"). I would've also preferred a film that more thoroughly detailed the lives and struggles of the refugees featured; we get some elusive details about death threats, but we're not even told what countries the interview subjects come from or what was going on in those countries.

Instead of either of those things, however, we get long, tedious footage of catatonic children. Girls lying in bed while a doctor uses a blood pressure cuff. A boy being bathed. Children being fed through tubes. None of that is especially resonant, at least not as the film depicts it. I empathize with the children and the families taking care of them, but this movie never quite succeeds at saying anything meaningful about their struggle.

Interesting but bad executed

[borgolarici · 6/10 · 29 December 2019]

While the issue is tragic and potentially extremely interesting, the documentary is quite lame. Basically almost its 40 minutes is silent footage of sleeping children and the backstory of the families is badly explained, the interviewer imho didn't do a very good job. The medical side of the question is left unexplored, just as the cultural one.

Fascinating subject matter

[toboer · 5/10 · 27 October 2019]

Resignation Syndrome is a fascinating condition and the families' stories are very sad. However, I feel this beautifully filmed documentary offers little beyond an introduction. Frustratingly we're never told which countries these refugee families came from, and the film doesn't examine the syndrome from a scientific angle.

Expected much more

[nanakitsch · 6/10 · 23 June 2019]

A few years ago I read a lot about resignation syndrome and found it so interesting. But today, when I watched this documentary, I felt it has no depth. If you found the topic interesting, google to know more.

Heartbreaking

[GoalDigs · 15 June 2019]

An absolute riveting watch. My heart broke for those families.

This 'Syndrome' looks completely fake

[mindydear_2834 · 6/10 · 5 March 2022]

The syndrome these children have looks totally faked. The families not only fake things in Sweden, they faked things for the cameras filming the documentary.

I realize the families are seeking asylum, but my comments about the faked syndrome have nothing to do with this issue.

Stunning piece of work

[tremainejleaso · 7/10 · 7 June 2020]

This documentary was approached in much different way to which I would've thought they would approach it. There is a lot of visual metaphor in the particular shots they choose, not really giving much context to the backstory of each child. It jumped several places throughout, however I thought that the transitioning between stories and finding connections to move from one child to the next was a nice touch. In a way, it pulls the audience in and at times pushes them out. I'd honestly have to say that I learned more in the white text before and after the actual footage than the footage itself.

It was not the most informative film although it seemed to be more focused on the pandemic of this syndrome from an emotional perspective, I personally think that a documentaries job is among other things supposed to be informative, the emotional aspect of it should come from the facts mixed with the story which this film didn't really do. I loved the film, however there are some blank spaces where pieces of vital information and medical reliability through interviews with specialists are missing.

a must watch documentary about a strange psychological illness

[davyu-73849 · 7/10 · 21 January 2020]

In short, this documentary is about a psychological illness named Resignation Syndrome. The setting is in Sweden and this doc tells of its horror by chronicling families' misfortunes.

It is very informational, short, and to the point, which is exactly the way I like it.

Wish it was more in depth

[alice_ok_ · 8/10 · 21 June 2019]

Very important documentary. Would have been great with added interviews with the Swedish migration center and politicians. It felt so hopeless seeing those children and feeling like yes this documentary informed us about this but what if it could have actually made a difference politically?

Very questionable syndrome

[Boioo · 1/10 · 19 January 2020]

At first I thought this was rather fascinating, but if you have a questioning personality you will start having questions. Questions that doesn't seem to have answers, at least not in this documentary which makes it feel rather biased. So I looked it up.

This resignation syndrome only happens to asylum seekers during the asylum processing and for decades it only happened in Sweden. In cases where the children have been separated from their parents they quickly recover in 1-2 days. The other known "cure" is giving them asylum. Supervised children have been found eating during the night. The more media attention it got, the more people suddenly had it. There's no scientific explanation.

This is information from Regeringskansliet (state commissioned report), Filter (a journalistic paper) and Uppdrag Granskning (an investigative journalistic program on state television) in Sweden. It's not some kind of right-wing foreigner-hating conspiracy. I think that if you're desperate enough and really want to get asylum, lying is the least of your worries and people working with asylum seekers don't want to believe they could be lying because questioning victims is a big nono and could probably get you fired.

It's easy to silence any criticism by calling people racist or pretending like there's no problem, but how nice is that towards the children? This documentary is propaganda.

Excellent

[christophermoverton · 9/10 · 19 June 2019]

This documentary is about a rare dissociative disorder related to traumatic stress in children. Cases have been noted in other instances outside of Sweden, but it is rare. Many of those affected share common backgrounds.

Seems fishy

[meaghanlr92 · 3/10 · 15 February 2020]

I found it interesting but something seemed . . . off about it. It definitely seemed one-sided. I did a bit of sleuthing and according to one source, one of the children was trained to act like they had RS. One of the doctors also reportedly had his words taken out of context in a way that seems really suspicious to me.

I don't doubt the stories behind why these refugees were in Sweden. But keeping that in mind, you have to consider that people will do anything to keep themselves and their families safe--including lying. (I don't think that makes someone a bad person, but gaining publicity from lies certainly does.) You can see how a refugee child coming down with RS can help the family secure asylum, and so I've taken the documentary with a grain of salt.

I'm not saying all of these families are liars and this isn't a real thing, but looking back after I've watched it, it seems more like one-sided propaganda than a well-balanced, multi-faceted documentary that goes into depth on the topic.

good documentary for an inquisitive mind

[myotherpetisdog · 10/10 · 23 June 2019]

The documentary shines light on the human psyche and psychological fragility of children. I believe there are more cases of this syndrome all over the world. In Sweden, affected children are taken care of and psychological connection is established. It is possible that in other countries they classified (diagnosed) differently and without proper care they die. We just don't know the whole picture. For most doctors and career biologists the entire concept of life processes is a chemical one. Even mental and psychological phenomena regarded as mostly, if not totally, attributable to chemistry. Even the well known electromagnetic properties of human physiology are largely ignored, unrecognized and unused by most physicians. In their minds chemistry can account for virtually everything. While chemistry is a vital part of life processes, such processes do not completely follow the laws of chemistry, as demonstrated in this documentary. Child's psyche is able to pickup invisible cues from its parents by unknown to the western science means and withdraw from reality if it is too much to handle.

40 minutes and they accomplished nothing

[alansabljakovic-39044 · 5/10 · 29 January 2020]

It was one sided story all the time. I would love to hear stuff from professional doctors and how are they working to solve/cure this illness. Also, we could get more insight on government's side of the whole deportation story.

Haunting

[joseph-m-morris · 8/10 · 4 February 2020]

My wife and I watch this is part of the Oscar documentary shorts that were in theaters, and we both agreed that this was our favorite (with In the Absence taking second place).

It seems like a lot of people reviewing here were watching this in the hopes of getting a detailed medical account of Resignation Syndrome. But that isn't the purpose: this is is a beautiful introduction, well thought-out visually, to what the refugee experience is, as encapsulated in that medical condition.

The difference between the situations that these refugees were fleeing from, and the stability that was offered by Sweden, seemed to be the cause of the children to enter into this state - like a merger between severe depression and a coma. I'm sure they're not doing it in any way that is intentional, in the way that we usually use that word, but it does make a peculiar kind of sense: that if they are immobilized in Sweden, they won't be taken back to a traumatic situation.

The visuals during voiceovers of journalists and medical experts are fallow fields and forests in winter. About halfway through the movie I realized how symbolic these are of the children, waiting for conditions to be right to come out and flourish.

Strange, no explanation, just odd

[martiniuc · 1/10 · 22 June 2019]

Very odd documentary - it doesn't seem genuine to me, something is off. How convenient, they were in a coma during the filming of documentary, and came out of it by the end.. so strange. If it's true, they did not do a good job with this documentary.

Fascinating and Tragic

[jillbeck-93429 · 8/10 · 19 January 2022]

An incredibly fascinating documentary about a tragic condition. I was left wishing I'd gotten more background on where the families were from and the circumstances of that led them to seek asylum. After all, that was what provoked the condition. But as a human and especially a parent, it was so touching to see how well taken care of these children were by their parents. I'd never heard about this condition before, and it was amazing to see trauma on display in such a physical manner. That is probably why this was an effective short documentary. There's no way you could sum up "emotional" trauma in that short of a time.

It felt almost too absurd to be real

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 18 June 2019]

"Life Overtakes Me" is a Swedish/American co-production from 2019, so pretty new still and this one mostly got attention, also awards recognition already because of its heavy support and distributiion from Netflix. The two directors of these 40 minutes are Kristine Samuelson and John Haptas. You can read the plot summary here on imdb and honestly it sounds so absurd to me that I actually wondered if it was all staged and a fake documentary. Probably it was not, but the idea of kids (it does not matter if they are refugees or not) falling into a comatose state because of terrible things happening around them is something I never heard of, nothing that really happened 100 years ago and I am not sure if it is a civilizatory illness that is still really. It does seem really new from the perspective that doctors and scientists know almost nothing about it in terms of specific situations where it is likely to happen or also how they can treat it, which seems to be really complicated. Aside from the specific contents though, even if it is real, I must say that I never perceived the film and illness depicted in here as emotionally and heartbreakingly as I would have liked. That's why also overall I'd not give this film a positive recommendation. I must say I am still a bit surprised how the rating here is relatively low. I would have thought others like it more than they did apparently. Maybe they also wonder if it is authentic. Another thing that strikes me as weird is that this really only takes place in Sweden. It must be elsewhere if it is really only psychological reasons and not outer influence in any way. Besides, they sometimes are going too much for the tear-jerk effect I must say. The sexual abuse story line early on involving for the woman felt rushed and for the sake of it and I think it would have deserved better execution, the topic as a whole. I am still kinda curious if these movie eventually ends up gaining more awards recognition, perhaps even at the Oscars for Best Documentary Short. Right now I would tend to say it won't, but it is definitely possible. I still say skip the watch.

The truth behind the "syndrome"

[shide_85 · 1/10 · 4 July 2021]

Jag är svensk och följde detta när det år efter avslöjades vad som faktiskt var felet. I am Swedish and followed this when it years after was exposed what was actually the problem. A stronger hand was used later on when this was studied. Then the parents were seperated from the children, and magic ensued where the previously comatose-like condition seized to be. Parents were exposed to be the cause of the problem, it was a try to stop extradition as Swedish law won't let the state extradite to a harmful place to the individual or under some other circumstances (was too long ago to paraphrase a close to exact paragraph of law) to avoid returning to none harmful nations.

Politically speaking about the surrounding immigration problems: Swedish citizens have started to turn against the rightwing concept of a multicultural society which was introduced by the right wing think tank Timbro in Swedish mainstream discourse. The moderates (conservatives) wanted the cheap labour (to put pressure on unions) and to disrupt the socialdemocratic side (voting tendencies of immigrants favour regressive policies due the leap from their own nations norms to a progressive nation is large - so a backlash is commonplace) who build Swedish wellfare and has had more or less monopoly on the power (excluding later years when they have become social liberal by not being strong enough to stand against EU).

The socialdemocrats are for immigration for the increase taxes an increasing population brings, this is needed due to debt being stacked onto Sweden (the overwhelming majority of the debt 1200 miljarder kr) as Carl Bildt locked the exchange rate of the krona so that currency speculation could occur (early 90's), a person that has had the support of american agencies since his youth days and is involved in big oil. Oh, and the left is in it for the moral reason (which is partially akward due to it draining the nations from political will to change), while the greens support vast immigration to get a seat at the table of real power (behind the scenes in "monteaskewing", if u cath the pun). So overall this has lead to Sweden Democrats (who started out using an old socialdemocratic platform as base for their political manifesto) gaining alot of votes early on, then swapping over to the right wing fascist side as conservatives agreed to cooperate with them while social democrats did not (and yeah most likely due to undercurrents within the party aswell).

The immigration also causes tention because immigrants tend to use wellfare in an alot higher degree (on average around 80% more than the general indigenous population) which puts tension on the wellfare system (causing the state to decrease medicines prescribed and things like that), with the added poverty as immigrants have previously been able to choose where to settle (causing detriment to the actual immigration of the personas into the culture) overloading city suburbs and causing areas which corporations and stores avoid which results in less jobs, higher poverty and with poverty comes increasing crime. Ontop of that crime syndicates have both formed and immigrated to Sweden wholesale (families who are dedicated to crime and can't yet be extradited due to legal demands on extradition measures of groups).

Slow

[ummajon2003 · 4/10 · 16 May 2022]

Fascinating subject, but very slow pacing even for 40 minutes. Obviously, the Swedish asylum process is traumatic and laced with bigotry and hate against these refugee families. Then these parents convey their own victim-hood and helplessness to their children. These people had decent homes and their health--yet sat in this "fear lives in our body," and our kids have "only suffered in life" attitude. These topics should have ave been explored instead of just hinted upon.