A record of conversations with a woman living with schizophrenia. While facing a source of light, the viewer listens to her voice as she speaks about what it means to be herself.

 

By taking medication and fulfilling socially assigned roles from the outside, she manages to remain within the framework of what is considered “normal.” At the same time, she continues to search for an outlet for the energy that wells up inside her. She longs for freedom and release, yet knows that the moment she acts on those desires, they can become a problem. Precisely because she understands the perspectives of her partner and her psychiatrist, she suppresses her sense of self and performs the role of a patient. The dilemma between self-liberation and the internalization of social norms permeates her words.

 

The title takes the famous phrase attributed to Goethe, “Mehr Licht!”, and turns it into a question. The phrase is said to originate from an anecdote in which Goethe, on his sickbed, asked for the window shutters to be raised so that more light could enter.

 

However, I imagine that on another, overly bright day, Goethe might have meant something quite different: “Lower the shutters and block out more light.” We are unsettled by the many different kinds of light that enter through a window.

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