Escaping from a plethora of negative circumstances is a daily necessity for scores of refugees around the world. It’s only half the battle, though. Phase 2 is establishing a new foothold in a new land. Doing so—however—is not only a tedious process but one that has no guarantee. Tragically, one relatively new way that the lack of a guarantee can manifest itself is in the form of a crippling condition that preys upon younger refugees. “Wake Up on Mars” tells the true story of one expatriate family confronted by and stricken with the worst possible nightmare.
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Swiss-Albanian Dea Gjinovci directs the project, and her attention to the subject was initially motivated by her review of Rachel Aviv’s article in The New Yorker entitled “The Trauma of Facing Deportation.” Reaching out to a doctor for refugees eventually led her to the Demiris, the family at the heart of the documentary. Gjinovci said she wanted to—ultimately—“tell the refugee crisis as a family tragedy.”
Uppgivenhetssyndrom i.e. resignation syndrome is the condition previously alluded to, and Sweden seems to be ground zero. It solely affects refugee children in the country, and 400+ children had been afflicted by 2005, according to Aviv’s article. Perhaps most distressing is that the article characterizes those children as “to have lost the will to live.”
Here’s the synopsis for the documentary:
Furkan, the youngest member of a Roma family living in Sweden, attempts to come to terms with the mysterious illness of his two sisters. Ibadeta and Djeneta have been in a coma-like state for several years, victims of what has been named the “resignation syndrome.” Traumatized by the thought of being sent back to Kosovo, their homeland, their minds and bodies have suddenly gone to sleep.
In central Sweden, his family attempts to rebuild a normal life, but so far their asylum applications have been refused one after the other.
Furkan tries to escape his reality by building his own spaceship to fulfill his dream: to go live on Mars and save his two sisters. At the core of this film lies this one question: “What happens to human beings, and in particular children, when all hope is gone?”
“Wake Up on Mars” was originally slated to premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival. Check out the trailer below, and here’s hoping the Demiris and other deserving families like them can recover and realize their opportunity to start anew.
