Luuk Bouwman is currently the only Dutch documentary filmmaker that comes to mind who has reached a status for me where I will automatically check out whatever he presents next. Naturally, the title of his The Desert of the Real piqued my interest immediately. I was not quite sure what to expect or which direction it would take, though the overall concept felt a bit reminiscent of A Glitch in the Matrix (2021).It is undoubtedly an important subject, delivering valuable portraits and intimate personal accounts of six people who have lived through psychosis, mental breakdowns, or whatever label fits these disruptive encounters.¹ That said, having already read on the topic — including works by Bauke Koekoek (nominative determinism?!), Karlijn Roex, and Wouter Kusters (who happens to be one of the subjects featured here) — and having spoken with people who experienced similar episodes, or have dealt with people having them, I was a bit disappointed that I did not gain many new insights.Where the documentary shines most is in the humanist empathy it conveys, but I constantly wished it probed a bit deeper. It took a long time just to introduce everyone and get going with all the stories. I went in hoping for a more philosophical interpretation or a rigorous phenomenological exploration — especially concerning the tension between the psychological and the societal — but it ultimately remained fairly surface-level. Then again, perhaps I was just too eager to see my Lacanian-Žižekian hypotheses affirmed.The reveal that one participant’s psychosis was actually triggered by an autoimmune disease — and that specific medication brought relief — was simultaneously concerning and comforting to learn. Hopefully, that is not a piece of information my own mind decides to use against me later...¹ The titular ‘the Real’ represents a traumatic disruption of everyday reality.
