Without Memory

A severe shortage of thiamine in the diet can cause Wernicke’s Encephalopathy (WE), a disease that can result in a complete loss of memory. The illness mainly occurs among ageing and neglected people and alcoholics. The Japanese man Sekine Hiroshi was admitted to hospital in 1992 for a stomach complaint and spent five weeks on a glucose drip. His body suffered such a shortage of vitamins, that he was left with WE. Since then he has fought its consequences. It took his family three years to convince the authorities that Sekine needed a disability allowance. The government at first refused to acknowledge in public that budget cuts in the health service led to cases like this. It has been calculated that 41 people have so far died of illnesses that are directly attributable to the cuts. A large number of others, among them Sekine, have been severely handicapped.Kore-Eda, who is best known in Holland for his Maborosi, shot a documentary about the Sekine family between 1994 and 1996. His film is more than a flaming protest against erroneous medical treatment and bureaucratic delays. He has above all made it clear how strange it is to wonder every morning who those people are, when you see your wife and children…