reviewThat a nightmare unfolds for American-Polish parents Jack and Beata Kowalski when they take their daughter to the ER in 2016 is an almost cynical understament. Take Care of Maya, now on Netflix, can thus enter the debatable list of the most depressing documentaries of all time. Socially relevant? Certainly. But who would recommend such a harrowing thing to you?
It continues to wring: dancing around the ‘plot twists’ of a documentary with a violent content while it concerns true suffering. Everything for the most shocking viewing experience? Anyway, we only reveal the basics of the story here. Maya is ten when she suddenly experiences excruciating pains. The medical world is puzzled until the girl in Mexico can finally undergo treatment.
Her rare condition Complex Regional Pain Syndrome is treated there in an unconventional way with ketamine. The drugs work, but once Maya – once back in the US – has another episode and ends up in an American hospital, the doctors question both this treatment and the diagnosis. It is suspected that mother Beata in particular is making up the complaints and that there is the so-called Münchhausen syndrome; a serious psychiatric illness in which people deliberately make themselves sick (or have them made) in order to get attention.
‘Child abuse’
The fact that Maya is then not allowed to have any contact with her parents suddenly suspected of child abuse for months is just the tip of the iceberg. The shocking documentary leaves no doubt about this ‘mystery’. The public should – and most likely rightly so – support the Kowalskis. Child protection, but also the American healthcare system in a broad sense, is making serious mistakes and the consequences are heartbreaking. And anyone who opposes the established order only gets into deeper trouble. Father Jack tries to keep quiet against his better judgement, something that mother Beata just doesn’t want to succeed. When the documentary then presents a nasty twist, we are only halfway there.
Filmmaker Henry Roosevelt couldn’t get the alleged culprits in front of his camera. He incorporated the resulting frustration into the end result. It turns out that there are countless parents who lost custody of their children in the same way. Yet it never gets too panting. If it is a one-sided pursuit of effect, the defense is that he did everything he could for years to reveal the story as completely as possible. The fact that this is apparently made impossible only makes the drama more urgent. Take Care of Maya infuriates and that may well be accompanied by some exclamation marks. It is inevitable that you will give viewers sleepless nights.
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