News about art and medicine
This section, edited by Henk Maassen, features reviews of current novels, films, music, theater, exhibitions and poetry in which medicine plays a role every two weeks on Saturdays. But, since we are a Dutch side in origine, films will probably be the main topic in the English version of Scoop.
May 3, 2025
Film
Quiet Life
Katatoon after refusal of asylum: a new syndrome?
In Quiet Life, young Katja meets a curious fate. After her family is told that they will be deported from Sweden, Katja falls into a state most reminiscent of catatonia. In Sweden this is now known as Uppgivenhetssyndrom, internationally referred to as Resignation Syndrome. Since the late 1990s, numerous asylum children in Sweden have fallen into a similar condition: motionless, speechless, unreachable. Sometimes only tube feeding keeps them alive. These are children whose asylum applications have been rejected and who cannot bear the thought of returning to war, repression or social displacement.
Quiet Life is tightly composed, in mostly gray, bluish and white tones. The film is played in an understated, detached style. The dialogues are unnatural, sometimes even absurdist – entirely in keeping with the film’s absurdist atmosphere. The spaces in which the characters move are bare and symmetrical. As a result, many viewers will have difficulty connecting emotionally with what is happening on screen. But that seems to be precisely the intention of director Giorgos Avranas.
Still, the question inevitably arises: is this “real”? Did Avranas want to make a realistic drama, or is Quiet Life meant to be a parable about the cruel fate of asylum seekers? After all, the World Health Organization does not recognize Resignation Syndrome as an official psychiatric condition. Yet several publications – accessible via PubMed – and an impressive report in The New Yorker make short of that skepticism.
Regardless, Quiet Life is not an easy film to fathom. Katja’s parents are subjected to bizarre therapies and urged – or rather forced – to adopt an unnaturally cheerful attitude. To what extent this is based on reality remains unclear. It does help to know that Avranas belongs to the so-called “weird Greek wave,” a movement within Greek cinema characterized by alienating aesthetics and socially unusual manners. Its best-known representative is Yorgos Lanthimos, with such internationally lauded films as Poor Things, The Lobster and Dogtooth. These films examine and comment on political and cultural issues, social relations and – more broadly – the modern zeitgeist in disturbing ways. Quiet Life fits seamlessly into that list.
Henk Maassen