"In the Name of Reason" is everything but its title. The shocking and disturbing facts of a mental institution that was known for its treatment of
society outcausts who shouldn't be there is a report of horrorific effects even though viewers can't see the full extent of what really happened inside
those walls, in this prison-like place that vitimized hundreds of people who weren't mentally ill. And that's how things work when it
comes to the treatment of people in psychiatrical hospitals: no one cares about the problems of the mind. The perception and prejudice changed over the years
but progresses are yet to be done.
The Barbacena Colony Hospital, located in Minas Gerais,
was an institution that kept minorities, blacks, homosexuals, alcoholics, mistress of policians, people with depression or some historic of mental illness and people who weren't "fit" for society were inhumanely
treated as crazy people, locked on extreme conditions of which a whole majority would die there. It was hospital for the mentally ill back of when it was funded
but with time it changed to something else in order to make undesired people to disappear from view and receive shock treatment.
Helvecio Ratton's film is a
denounce and a statement against a system that was perpetuating the image and ideas of concentration camps for several years, eliminating people with the help
of society, governments and others. The majority of mental institutions were exactly as the one shown here: overcrowded of people, no responsible doctors to
treat patients, people living in subhuman conditions and just left there to living in oblivion and die. That place existed before the concept of world wars
and it was prolongued for decades until its closure in 1996 - thirteen years after this documentary release. Walking zombies and even children can be seen
walking around on the facilities and rooms, and the few ones who managed to keep their minds alive talk about their routine in the place - though the majority
of the hospital function and ordeals are told by the director. It's a painfully depressing film but an important one. It is the voice of reason and sanity speaking
for those who were shut down and excluded from society's views because of what they were and what they represented at the time: everything that it's different
from the norm, different from society conventions. All done in the name of reason but the really insane ones weren't locked there.
Forget about what you've seen in fictional films out there. This documentary shows the real situation inside of a mental institution; its patients (really sick
and in need of help or just treated to turn into insane individuals - places like the one presented can drive one crazy); and the administration of such thing
if there was one because it's even more insane you don't see anyone and this film crew was allowed to go in there without obstacles. If those people thought no one would care about a film talking about what happens inside of a hospital/prison or no one would believe such a place exists, then I understand the reasoning for its
exclusive acccess to almost everything. It's hard to believe but never impossible. 9/10.
