It seems as though when something is unknown then religion sneaks in and tries to explain it. The film Requiem takes place in the 1970s, Germany. A young girl suffers from epilepsy and has been kept at home for years. After getting into a college, she has to hide from her mother that her seizures have not stopped. She starts hearing voices and seeing things. Of course, coming from a very strict religious family she believes that she’s seeing demons. She tries to focus on her school work but its hard for her to manage it. Her father is understanding and wants to give her a chance before she’s pulled out of school. She starts to believe that she can no longer pray. If she tries to touch a crucifix, some demon is holding her back. Suddenly her epilepsy is not her problem. But now she thinks she’s possessed. The voices she could handle, but not being able to pray makes her go for help. Not exactly the help that could actually help but her local priest. He (shockingly) tells her that there’s no such thing as the devil. He is what we make him and is simply a symbol. Over time her condition gets worse. She never leaves her room. She doesn’t shower. She rarely eats. A good friend of hers and her boyfriend realize it. They decide she has to be taken to a hospital. The boyfriend doesn’t want to take her to a loony bin so he brings her home. Unfortunately, he made a mistake. While she’s there, her parents see her horrible state and try to pray with her. She loses it. They believe that her reaction to their prayers really means she is possessed. They call another priest who earlier in the movie told her that this was her struggle in life. That she needs to go through this challenge for God. After this point, she does believe that she must fight. Although, it doesn’t seem like she’s fighting anything but herself.
The film centers on the division between mental illness and supernatural occurrences. The supernatural side is merely because of the mental illness. She confused her epilepsy with demonic possession. The movie is based on a true case. Later on, doctors found out that she might have also had a dissociative disorder as well. This explains the voices and illusions. The film has the viewer question why people try to explain the explainable with something rather unexplainable. Religion itself has no explanation. It makes no sense. It’s based on faith. So why try and explain an already explained situation? Is it for power? Or just for comfort? I’m not sure. SPOILER alert: But whatever the reason is, it resulted in the young woman’s death. She was practically starved to death. The autopsy report says exhaustion. Sadly, if she was taken to a hospital, her life would not have been lost to a false idea. Her angry reaction to prayer could have been because she was so sick of praying to something she didn’t see, for something that could not be fixed. Her family used religion to identify most things and with her disorder they could not identify it. She was angry because it didn’t help her.
