El otro Tom – The Other Tom
El otro Tom – The Other Tom
Director: Rodrigo Plá, Laura Santullo
Starrings: Israel Rodriguez, Julia Chavez, Cristopher Jones, Leah Miller, Jorge Castro, Marina Garbalena, Jaco Rodriguez, Rigo Zamarron, Jeanelle Carden, Sofía Prieto, Samantha Jasso, Alma Brockhoff, Alejandra Dozal, Malicia Dominguez
Country: Mexico
Year 2021
Review author: Roberto Matteucci
Click Here for Italian Version
“I am bipolar”. “I am ADHD”.
When talking about a naughty and mischievous child, the reference is always Tom Sawyer, the poetic character created by Mark Twain. Tom Sawyer is restless, exuberant but also lively and curious. He disobeys Aunt Polly, steals her jam, never listens to her. His cunning is brilliant. He cheats his friends with the famous story of the fence to be painted. He convinces his companions to replace him and paint the fence for him, even receiving gifts in exchange. His aunt always punishes him severely, but the results are evanescent. However, he is a genuine and generous guy. He agrees to be punished in place of his little girlfriend, Becky. Fortunately, Tom Sawyer is set in the second half of the nineteenth century. If he had lived in our days, his aunt, instead of spanking and scolding, would have made him drink a combination of Atomoxetine, Clonidine, Guanfacine, Antidepressants, Anxiolytics. (1) What is the best educational method: a loud slap or a chemical cocktail of inhibitors, antihypertensives and sedatives?
It is the absurdity of our time, determined by rationality devoid of humanity: to find diseases, even in the habitual gestures of children.
The absurd invention is ADHD: Attention-Deficit / Hyperactivity Disorder. Distracted by dreams and imagination, a child may have an attention-deficit at school. However, if he runs, screams, plays, he may suffer from hyperactivity disorder. Hence, ADHD covers the whole range of childhood in the world.
Diagnosis occurs with a multiple-choice test methodology, like in a public exam an employment in a ministry:
"For diagnosis, doctors use questionnaires filled out by parents and teachers, as well as observations of the child." (1)
Parents complete a form and the doctor counts the symptoms:
“The diagnosis of ADHD is based on the number, frequency and severity of the signs. Children must have 6 or more marks to have attention-deficit or hyperactivity disorder and impulsivity (or 6 of both to diagnose combined ADHD)." (1)
If the child scores more than six points, the doctor inexorable decrees the disease. As a next step, he orders the prescription of powerful medication that may have severe side effects, but especially are useless. Kids must be animated, dynamic, witty, capricious. They are not sick, they do not need medications, they just have to vent their energy and their originality. They have to grow up with the help of their parents, without leaving them passively in front of the TV and iPad. Furthermore, they should not be filled with antidepressant drugs.
A critique of this insane treatment is narrated by directors Rodrigo Plá and Laura Santullo in the film El otro Tom - The Other Tom presented at the 78th Venice Film Festival.
Black screen, voices. In an elevator, there is Tom, a nine-year-old boy, and his mother Elena. Elena is a warehouse worker. She is pissed off with the world. And she has good reasons. Julian, Tom's father, left her with her son, in modest financial conditions and in a wooden house. Elena vents, despite Tom's presence, bringing men to her room for casual sex encounters. Of course, Tom has problems due to his family situation. He is rightfully a pain in the arse. He moves all the time, has low grades in school, he makes his mother and teachers crazy. Tom's social workers force her to accompany him to a consultant who, without any real motivation, diagnoses him with ADHD. For the doctors, the remedy is simple, fill him with very powerful medicines with obvious serious side effects. If the therapy fails, the dose of the drug is increased. Tom is just cheerful, perhaps a need for vigilance, presence and a normal family. No one, neither the doctors nor the social workers, is worried about the motivations for his restlessness. They can exclusively ask: "did you take the pill?”
The main theme is topical: the use of medicine to treat illnesses of uncertain severity, such as psychological ones. It is the controversy about the vaccination debate.
People's freedom is another essential argument: who is responsible for the education of children? Who determines how children should be educated and what principles they should follow? Should the state, the institutions and the schools prevail over families in violation of the Declaration of Human Rights?
Another subject is the difficulty of being parents. There is a malaise both for the child and the parents.
Rodrigo Plá also had a similar personal experience:
“... I am a father with with two sons now they grow up but they were quiet, well they were quite special and very they used to move a lot and you know so the people started yeah from the school they started to talk about them and to ask you questions about them so we realized they were trying in a way to I don't know to give him an option of medicating them and then we start to research a lot and we realize that there are around five to ten percent of kids who have been medicaid psychiatric medications and it doesn't seem right yeah it doesn't seem right especially because they way they does the diagnosis quite superficial in my point of view i mean they diagnose taking the behavior the observation of the behavior of the kids without thinking about the context the problems they have you know it's mostly like does he often moves too much that he can't finish his task questions like that you know it's a complex thing i mean i think it also entails education i think it's implied ...” (2)
His children are “quite special” and, like their peers "they used to move a lot". Teachers should protect the pupils, but, out of laziness, to avoid complications at school because they have poor preparation, they reach a single solution:
“ … from the school they started to talk about them and to ask you questions about them so we realized they were trying in a way to I don't know to give him an option of medicating them ...”
The school silences those who discard indoctrination. Therefore, the rebels must be chastened through dangerous drugs. The authors possess a high level of intellectual ability and cultural competence. They reject the uncertain medical prescriptions. They suggest a doubt: must one accept without having to question the statements of doctors, that is to say, the science? Or can one have hesitations, or opposing ideas?
Filmmakers do not want to disintegrate the scientific spirit:
"In fact, the production of the film began many years before the pandemic and, although it deals with the excessive use of psychiatric care in children, it is absolutely not an attempt to undermine the credibility of science." (3)
The value of science is undeniable. It has improved human existence, but, unlike God, it is not infallible. Science is sometimes wrong. It has made many mistakes and made some wrong predictions.
The second issue is deciding who is responsible for the education of the children.
“It was quite interesting to try to approach from this side to the story, and it was like making a new environment. It’s research. It’s learning about all the places. We wanted to make this a story in the United States because there is this thin line between where the state can go into a family business and matters, and [ask ourselves] when is too much and where are the limits between the private and the public when you have a strong state? When does the state have to intervene or not? It all depends and it’s difficult to say and also, who is evaluated?” (4)
The authors set the film in the United States, where the population is reluctant to accept any exaggerated interference by the state. It is enough to observe the battles between parents and teachers in American schools, on the priorities of teaching. Nevertheless, the question is "When does the state have to intervene or not?"
The baby Tom has the name of the protagonist of Tom Sawyer. It is no coincidence:
“… we decided to [name] the character Tom was because we had a scene, [with] the theater piece with Tom Sawyer because we liked the idea that she said, “If Tom Sawyer would exist in our days, he will be medicated.” (4)
Tom has long hair and is a funny and vivacious character, but he is never violent. Obviously, his mother because she is alone, has become crazy following Tom's thousands adventures. It is impossible to control him. Desperate, she agrees to give him medicine, which, however, makes him depressed, and above all, to the point of attempting suicide.
Tom is uninterested in boring games, he often has fits of rage. He also has peaceful and loving moments, like playing with his mom.
The other protagonist is Elena, the mother, young, abandoned. Perhaps, Tom was an unwanted child. Perhaps, his birth could be depended on a contraceptive distraction. She has internal problems and unbearable discomfort. She is a prisoner of her existence. Elena is not frivolous, she is not weak, and she loves Tom deeply. When she is aware of the side effects of the drugs, she rebels. She faces threats, from social workers and the school, to take away her custody.
“... she had the son when she was very young so she has a lot of life yeah in front of her and in a way she's frustrated of having the son yes she loves him but it's complicated relathionship and she makes mistakes and the boy also you know and it's as imperfect as human beings you know yeah so it's a real relationship it's real reason it's not an idealized relationship we try to do that obviously ...” (2)
According to the authors, although with many defects, Elena and Tom are a family. Elena only has to decide on her son's education.
Julian is a lateral personage. Too young, too immature to be a father. He moved to Mexico where he has a new girlfriend. Julian chats with Elena while playing with a skateboard, a symbol of her childishness. Nevertheless, Julian seems to become conscious of his fatherhood. In fact, he welcomes his ex-wife and child into his home in Mexico, taking his duty seriously.
Rodrigo Plá and Laura Santullo focus on single symbolic shots to show how Tom is just an unhappy little boy.
On one side, Tom is playing recklessly with a scale. On the other side, his mother talks to the doctor about his troubles. Or, Tom’s confusing drawings while, off-screen, the other children joke and have fun.
The social workers are contemptuous. They should help, but they are incapable. In a sequence, the authors represent them as policemen. The social workers arrive at Elena's home and search the house as if she were a criminal.
These choices imply identification with Elena. Elena carries on her shoulders the adversities, the pains of an uncomfortable life.
The structure implies an uncomplicated and clear presentation of the personalities.
The conflict is evident: the medicines for Tom and the argument between mother and society.
The third phase is the mother's awareness of the dangers to Tom.
The last part is Elena's journey with her son to Mexico, so she can remove the threat: Tom is in the pool and enjoying himself. Perhaps in the United States, society is starting to menace the health and freedom of families? Is Mexico better?
The film has pace, with tensions in Tom's reactions, in the personalities of the characters, allow the understanding of an unsolvable social melancholy.