Say Something

Isabell from Sweden lost her father at the age of two. When her mother met another man and they moved in together, at first she was happy, but the man turned out to be volatile and violent. The years that followed were traumatic for both mother and daughter. After (IDFA 2014), is the second part in a documentary diptych on children growing up in the face of violence. At the start of the film, Isabell is 18 and has just taken her final exams. She is restless and rebellious, and decides to go to the United States. But things don’t go well there: she starts using drugs and gets panic attacks. Back in Sweden, she gets admitted to a psychiatric clinic. Addressing her relationship with her mother turns out to be a crucial part of her recovery. Isabell hasn’t felt safe for a very long time: she has had to care for her emotionally unstable mother, whom she believes focuses on her own suffering. The film follows Isabell over a long period of time, without using interviews or voice-over. Intimate sequences of her therapy sessions, conversations with her best friend and emotional confrontations with her mother reveal how difficult it is to deal with the traumatic events of the past.