My Word Against Mine
Maasja Ooms / NL, 2025 / 114 min.
Five people who hear voices undergo a new treatment: a psychiatrist invites the voices to take the floor. The sessions reveal how this revolutionary approach allows patients to gradually get a handle on what’s going on inside their minds.
One in ten people hear voices. In this film, we meet five people living with this phenomenon. One person hears a single voice, another hears 19. One voice wants to protect, another wants to kill.
The film takes place in a therapeutic setting, with a psychiatrist off-screen leading a conversation with patients about their voices—and with the voices, too. Who are they? Why are they here? And what do they actually want? We witness how this revolutionary approach allows the patients to gain a greater insight into their own minds, and acceptance of what goes on inside them.
Which is not to say that the voices readily give themselves away—something is at stake here. Several sessions reveal a trauma that is directly linked to the emergence of these voices. Unraveling these histories, however, is not the focus of My Word Against Mine. Above all, the film draws a fascinating group portrait—of the protagonists as well as their voices—reflecting the wondrous world of the human mind.
This is part of
Part of
IDFA 2025
The International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) is once again bringing an exciting selection of the world’s best documentaries to Eye this year, from 13 through 23 November.
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