Go to content
In TV shows like Jackass, dangerous behaviour is funny and tough. But an estimated 500 to 700 Dutch youngsters between 15 and 20 annually lapse into a coma, often as a result of reckless behaviour. In his documentary, director René Roelofs shows the hard reality of a coma, contrasting sharply with the myth Hollywood movies present. Like the Leijpark Rehabilitation Centre keeps saying to patients' relatives: no matter what, they will come out of it impaired. Roelofs follows the intensive treatment of Mario and Marc, who have an awake-sleep rhythm, but other than that are not conscious of anything. By stimulating them by talking to them, with odours, noises and pain stimuli, they try to reactivate their cerebral functions. Whether it works and where the patient's ceiling is, is unpredictable. The patients' movingly candid loved ones cling, sometimes against their better judgement, to every reaction they perceive.

Credits

Set geluid
Sound Design
Production company
Best Films
TV company
NCRV Dokument

Title: Coma
Year: 2006
Duration : 1 hour, 35 minutes
Category: Long Documentary
Edition: NFF 2006

NFF Archive

You are now in the NFF Archive. The archive contains contains information on film, TV and interactive productions that were screened at past festival editions. The NFF does not dispose of this material. For this, please contact the producer, distributor or broadcaster. Sometimes, older films can also be found at the Eye Film Museum or the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision.