Recently the world public opinion and mass media more often raise an alarm because of the increase in severe cases of anorexia nervosa, the illness not so brightly covered in press previously. According to the results of investigation as for today the death rate among those with the diagnosis is about 20%.
By the dictionary, anorexia nervosa is a psychiatric illness that describes an eating disorder, characterized by extreme low body weight and body image distortion, with an obsessive fear of gaining weight. In 95% of all the cases these are young females aged 12 to 25 not being overweight at all. People with anorexia try to control body weight commonly through the means of voluntary starvation, purging, excessive exercise or other weight control measures, such as diet pills or diuretic drugs.
Anorexia nervosa is caused not only by the desire to lose weight, but also it’s a mask hiding other much more profound problems. There are no unambiguous reasons why this disease develops; they vary in each particular case. At the bottom of anorexia nervosa, as well as other disorders of eating behavior such as bulimia nervosa and binge eating underlie psychosocial problems, or to be more precise, the combination of social, personal and family factors.
Eating disorders reflect unconscious struggle of the inner personality, his or her perception of himself or herself and perception of the world. These also might be problems arising from traumatic life experiences and socialization models.
Short film Fame d’Amore by Italian director Simonluca Sacco is an attempt to investigate the causes and circumstances of the disease. While he goes through the maze of heroine’s soul we penetrate deeper and deeper into the case.
A young woman is counting calories and centimeters, carefully cleans fruits and vegetables and then boils and freezes them before eating. She always thinks about what to eat and what not to eat. She hates her body, her appearance and in her striving for perfection she resorts to various means, including starvation, different pills and medications.
Desire to have perfect body, perfect health and appearance; to control her weight and entire life might have arisen from some family problems, as author shows us. For example, may be one of the most traumatic moments in the life of this girl is reflected in the short; when on her birthday she goes to her family’s house to have some festive dinner. Small present she’s brought is not appreciated by her mother; her father is too busy at work, and when her mother prefers going out with friends to quiet dinner, the girl gets disappointed and frustrated. She then goes into deep thoughts of depression which permanently damages her. Her dark alter-ego is poisoning her existence, her life. She can’t resist the situation, she can’t control it. The only thing she thinks she can control is her weight and diet.
Film sets and interiors artistically chosen by the director, lights and darks of a picture and music theme create a special atmosphere of the movie reflecting the inner state of the heroine. Concordance of the girl’s image and surrounding reality put the viewer out of countenance: it’s impossible to understand where the real world is transformed into sickly feelings and thoughts of the girl.
Fame d’Amore is a film that awakes you from sweet drowsiness appealing to your mind and feelings. Due to the relevance and intenseness of the problem touched this short may stand in line with some educational documentaries not so rare nowadays, possessing significant social, psychological and artistic value.
