Local Life Overcoming struggles
Sometimes I Think About Dying How does social ties impact mental health? by Romain Copette
At the beginning of November an important her. Soon, both of them will start to share mo-
cultural moment for the city of Thessaloniki and our volunteers happened: The Thessaloniki International Film Festival. For 10 days most of us, Balkan Hotspot Volunteers, went to watch some of the movies which were screened at the festival. The movie I saw is called “Sometimes I think about dying”, an intriguing title for a very intriguing movie.
The film stars Daisy Ridley (Rey in Star Wars’ last trilogy) as the main character. “Sometimes I think about dying” depicts the story of Fran, a young working woman, who doesn’t seem to have any social life or social skills at all. She is giving the viewer a sense of loneliness throughout the movie, she barely has any interaction with her coworkers and is always seen alone in her house and environment, even at work. Her life starts to change when she meets Robert, her new co-worker who seems interested in
ments, a dinner and even a kiss.
Robert is trying to get to know her through their
interactions, but she is giving him a hard time since she doesn’t seem to know how to communicate or comprehend what he finds in her.
Being used to living alone, not having any links with her family (if she still has one), always working by herself and never really interacting with anyone in the workplace or only when it’s necessary, creates a situation in which she doesn’t have any social ties or connections with anybody. This explains her difficult relationship with Robert and the difficulties he has to reach her. “Fran is lonely, but actually she might be suffering from something far greater - depression.”
While some people sometimes look for lone-
liness, Fran appears to have always only lived in solitude and doesn’t know any other way of living; it may seem painful from a viewer’s perspective but not for her. She thinks about dying, which appears to fulfill her dreams, creating a sense of confusion from a viewer’s standpoint.
That sense of loneliness is not just a feeling,
Fran in her everyday work life
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© Point Productions/Saks Picture Company
during the movie; as viewers, we understand that
