SELF-PORTRAIT WITH MOTHER

With ruthless frankness, cameraman and alcoholic Edvard Oja documents his attempts to kick the habit. His father had been an alcoholic, as are his brothers, who live in a totally neglected house. Their mother tries in vain to show them a way out of the dependence. Although Edvard repeatedly talks to her about his illness, the aged woman’s angry outbursts and entreaties cannot give him the strength to change the situation. Alcoholism is also a widely spread problem among Edvard’s friends. There’s a director who tells about his drinking feasts, and an old man who believes that alcohol can make his life easier. So Edvard drifts between meetings with friends who drink and appointments in a withdrawal clinic. A member of a church-group, an ex-junkie himself, tries to convince Edvard that only god can help him to fight the addiction, while the doctor from the clinic advises him to draw strength from a stone he keeps in his consulting room. It is the death of an addicted friend that brings Edvard to reason: He admits himself to a permanent therapy in the withdrawal clinic.