Jann’s mother has already been suffering from Multiple Sclerosis for many years. When she is no longer able to speak, his interest in her disease gradually grows. Hoping to collect more and more information about this disease, the18-year-old starts out on his search. Doing large-scale and time-consuming research and making the personal acquaintance of 15 people suffering from MS, all happened before his decision, to make a film about some of their fates. In the end, seven people tell, in  very impressive and open ways, how they manage their MS, but also how it affects themselves and their lives. In spite of the sometimes massive limitations they experience, Luana, Bernadette, Rainer, Melanie, Oliver and Graziella, can, at times at least, enjoy their lives to the full and live very intensively. But this is not at all easy, as their controversies with thoughts of suicide and one’s own finality make quite clear.

In this film, its author also tries to work out his experiences with his own mother. He is trying to understand why she seemingly took the way of suppressing all thoughts about   her disease and he tries to accept her decisions long after they were taken. While working on his film, Jann Kessler starts visiting his mother more and more often in her nursing-home and reads out stories to her. More and more often he also starts filming during his visits as well, although his mother is no longer able to agree deliberately to being filmed. In this way, he offers the spectators a deep insight into his own process of coming to terms with the situation as it is. The result is a many-layered film full of tangible trust, which does not shy away from difficult questions as little as from the beautiful moments in life.

Jann Kessler explores in his truly excellent filmed documentation the possibilities of film as a genre, the frontierzones of human existence and the bridges and also the limits of empathy.

                                                       - Dieter Fahrer

«

»