Brain pain (2017)

Directed by: Jan Louter | 80 minutes | documentary

In Jan Louter’s new documentary ‘Hersenleed’ we are introduced to Clemens Dirven and Arnaud Vincent: two neurosurgeons who work in the brain tumor center of the Erasmus MC in Rotterdam. Many of Jan Louter’s documentary films have been screened at (inter)national film festivals. This was also the case at the AFI FEST in Los Angeles, where both ‘A Sad Flower in the Sand’ (2001) and ‘The Last Days of Shishmaref’ (2008) were awarded “a special jury mention for best feature documentary”. In ‘Brain Suffering’, Louter follows the surgeons during the grueling treatment process of three patients who have (again) been diagnosed with a brain tumor. The documentary maker knows how to illustrate the vulnerability of the human brain in a special way.

The skull forms a hard, safe protective layer for the brain, but within a minute and a half you come face to face with the brain through images of brain surgery. For brain surgeons, every view of it is and remains special. While fascinating, people who don’t have a medical degree can find this ‘confrontation’ somewhat creepy.

Jan Louter has chosen to focus on the (literal) brain suffering of three people. Mariska, mother of three children, has been suffering from headaches for some time. A brain tumor is diagnosed by the attending physician. Tessa, a tough chick with a passion for tattoos, is told that she has a tumor on the left front. And Steven, who had surgery before in 2008, gets the news that the brain tumor is growing again. The conversations that take place between doctor and patient are stressful. Delivering bad news is already hard for the doctor, let alone processing it by the patient. Supported by their loved ones, they endure the intensive process that triggers a brain tumor.

For all three, undergoing brain surgery is inevitable. Because of the difference in brain tumors, this results in three completely different, but no less complex, operations. During the operations it becomes clear how essential it is for a surgeon to recognize and recognize the boundary between operating and not. Precision work, steady hands and supreme concentration, but also some form of guts are required. In the case of a so-called awake operation, where the patient has to keep talking to the surgeon during the procedure in order to achieve an optimal result, the viewer is made extra aware of the fragility of the brain and that this improves the quality of life. is at stake.

Sensitive conversations and risky operations are alternated in ‘Brain Suffering’ with recognizable images in which the daily course of events in and around the hospital is expressed. Hospital beds, waiting rooms full of people and especially the construction workers who are working outside while brain surgery is underway, emphasize the fact that life goes on ‘as usual’ in the meantime. The sound that now and then fades away – almost unnoticeably – so that the focus is more on the emotion of a person, makes the documentary a powerful whole.

The roller coaster of emotions and desires is palpable in ‘Brain Suffering’. Disbelief, sadness, worry, powerlessness, fear and relief. But above all, as Doctor Clemens rightly points out, that which makes up a very large part of life: hope. The courageous decision of Mariska, Tessa and Steven (and their partners) to be followed in a very personal and difficult period in their lives produces poignant images. No fantasies, but an honest and vulnerable look into the medical kitchen of the Erasmus MC in Rotterdam.