DIRECTORS COMMENT

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"This TV documentary in 13 episodes was some of the most giving and most exhausting I have done. For half a year my co-director, Mads Nilsson, and I almost lived at the institution. I had a lot of neck and arm muscles after those six months. The camera ran constantly. Therefore, we got the entire story with no need for a voice over. The Norwegian poet, Odd Børretzen, wrote some poems after watching the finished edited episodes, which put a beautiful frame to it. There was a lot of media fuzz while this series was running. People with Down syndrome, Alzheimers, and the elderly in extremis had never been revealed in such a way before.

The Norwegian newspaper, VG, had a heading: “Death will become entertainment!” But as the episodes went by, all the critics went quiet. We received the Red Cross’ highest honor, ‘Torstein Dales Minnespris - a prize Kofi Annan received two years before us. We walked the edge in making this series, and we managed to land on the right side. Today, it’s acceptable to show people under all kinds of conditions. You might say that this was a pioneer work in Norwegian television."