Pandora’s House (35′)

Directors: Ana Cristina Henríquez and Julián Castillo Valdés

Synopsis

PANDORA´S HOUSE judges traditional psychiatry, its methods of diagnosis and its violent treatments such as electroshocks and isolation cells. It offers another view of people with mental problems as persons capable – if given the opportunity – of involving themselves in a collective activity and communicating with others.

A specific characteristic of this film is the fact that all the actors, except those who represent the authorities and employees of the hospital, are patients diagnosed as schizophrenic. With this, the filmmakers try to refute certain ideological assumptions that the schizophrenic is incapable of integrating into a collective activity and of establishing effective communication. On the contrary, when they regain the opportunity to express themselves, patients are able to achieve these two goals. This is demonstrated by the schizophrenic patients’ interpretation of the theatrical adaptation of Aeschylus’ Greek tragedy «Prometheus Bound» as well as the tragedy they experience on a daily basis in the psychiatric colony.