The medical term that buried countless women and children. Their records finally speak.
For doctors “MARASMA” was a diagnosis: a state of deep organic deterioration, total loss of strength. In mental hospitals, people did not die of mental illness, but of marasmus. This is what the medical records say, which today reveal the most difficult stories: those of the last among the weakest, children and women. Through their testimonies we can also give voice to those who do not know, who do not want or can not remember.
Direction
Perelli lets medical records do the screaming — restraint as weapon.
Production
Archival footage juxtaposed with Don Backy's testimony creates devastating friction.
Director
Luigi Perelli
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Marasmus as diagnosis was disproportionately applied to women and children in Italian asylums, effectively medicalizing social control.
Don Backy's participation connects Italy's entertainment industry to these institutions — his presence implicates popular culture in national forgetting.
IT
