Directed by Oya Gökşin Babaoğlu | Reviewed
by Adva Reichman
Counting down is a short film about bravery. What begins as a
deep-rooted fear of being
catalogued like the patients whose care Olivia is entrusted
with, turns into the realization and the willingness to
admit that her life’s work needs change, and that the
methods she spent years learning, are in-fact damaging.
The film is inspired by the real stories of Dorothea Dix – a leading mental health reformer, Helen Boyle – Brighton’s first female general practitioner and president of the royal medico- psychological association, and Dr. John Galt – a physician who worked in an insane asylum and introduced talk therapy and moral management therapy.
Having seven days until her new job as the head doctor of the
city’s asylum begins, Olivia
practices a different technique every day in the hopes of
curing herself from arithmomania – a form of OCD where
sufferers have a strong urge to count. The techniques are
brutal and include force feeding, lobotomy and altering bone
structure amongst others. Her 
elected
procedures show the viewer how little was actually known
about mental illness, and how patients were experimented on
using ruthless methods. This time, Olivia acts as her own
doctor and experiments on herself, probably from the fear of
having others do it if her illness becomes public. All the
means she displays are designed to treat the body and
through that achieve peace of mind. Treating the mind itself
and going deep into her psychology isn’t on her list.
After a week-long experiment, in which she tries everything she was taught and later preached, she concludes these treatments only made her worse. Now, she faces a choice: tell the truth or continue hiding her illness and treat patients using techniques that only deteriorated her mental being.
The acting,
done by the talented KateLynn Newberry, was on point and the
set really sold the 1800’s world. The music competed with
the dialogue a few times, but for the most part helped
enhance the drama. The cinematography, done by Ben Rhodes,
was beautiful and portrayed the fear and desperation Olivia
faced during these difficult days. The dramatic colors and
close ups brought us into her mind and soul.
In a time
where we finally shine a bigger light on mental illness and
the importance of taking care of ourselves, the talented
writer/director Oya Babaoğlu strengthens this notion, asks
us to demand better care, and reminds us that speaking up
about our well-being is important.
This is a film about one woman who is desperate to fix
herself and uses her esteem knowledge to do so, but through
that journey learns a bitter truth, and courageously speaks
up about it. I wished the filmmaker would have continued the
film and tracked Olivia as she faced the medical world and
demanded change, but hopefully a feature version is in the
works. This story deserves one.
Adva
Reichman is an Israeli writer-director based in
Los Angeles; her latest film, Something to Live For deals
with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and was screened at
prestigious festivals. While in Israel, she worked in the
Israeli news and on documentaries that revolved around major
terror attacks and kidnappings that took place in Israel
during the 70’s and 80’s. She is a graduate of the TV &
Film Production MFA program at USC School of Cinematic Arts.
