Like the Others

The feature documentary Like the others depicts the daily work at a child and adolescent psychiatric centre near Vienna, showing the perpetual balancing act between gentle caution and pressure, routine and improvisation. Succinct observations in the tradition of Direct Cinema lead to the touching and unsettling questioning of an institution and its function in society: How can the clinic help the hospitalised children and adolescents in a short time, before they return to their everyday lives?The feature documentary Like the others offers a precise observation in reply to the vague fears about psychiatric centres. Constantin Wulff accompanied the daily routines of the child and adolescent psychiatric centre at the district hospital in Tulln for one and a half years. His unsentimental, yet empathic film shows the institutional work as a permanent balancing act: between gentle caution and pressure, routine and emotional involvement, regulations and improvisation. Just like the viewers, the staff members can only accompany the children and adolescents for a short while, before they return to their everyday lives.