[Dementia in cinema - breaking taboos at the expense of authenticity?]

The fate of dementia patients often causes deep emotional crises for those living with the disease as well as their relatives. The inevitable loss of personal memories, identity and ultimately of basic bodily functions is deeply frightening and thus makes the neurodegenerative condition a predestined pathology for dramatic roles in film tragedies. Since the 1980s, the subject of dementia - in correlation with its increasing prevalence - has frequently been incorporated into feature films, however initially in minor productions and TV movies. This began to change in the 1990s and the new millennium was the beginning of a genuine boom for this subgenre, leading to overwhelming public, box office and critical success. Dementia has arrived in the repertoire of filmmakers and recent productions such as Robert and Frank (2012), Falling (2020) or The Father (2020) have reached millions of viewers and shaped their perception of the disease. Therefore the taboo surrounding dementia is gradually broken, reducing fears, misconceptions and prejudices in the population. While this trend should be viewed positively, it nevertheless has its downsides: dementia films tend to equate the progress of the disease with a regression into the infantile, to portray love as a potent antagonist of the condition and to glorify the (vegetative) final stage as a mystical-pantheistic state. Such trivialization by mass media may lead to an underestimation of both the patients' suffering as well as the Herculean task of caring for dementia patients. This can create new challenges in the healthcare of patients, issues that physicians should be aware of in the future whenever advising patients affected or their relatives.