Like the Others: Just want to be like everyone else - just once.”

Review (0)

“You’re just overthinking it”—a phrase we often say to those struggling with mental health, without realizing its weight. Especially when that person is a “child”—a child who doesn’t yet understand the complex emotions swirling inside. The documentary “Like the Others” invites us to witness invisible pain through the lives of children and adolescents in a psychiatric center in Austria. It’s a viewing experience that is both startling and deeply moving.

Listening to Children through Silence

There’s no narration, no conclusion, no explanation of who’s who. Instead, we observe these children living day by day. Some speak, some cry, some stay silent, and some smile. Each moment is an act of “trying”—trying to reclaim their sense of self. This is the power of “Like the Others”. This documentary allows us to slowly understand each child through their gaze and subtle behaviors filled with hidden stories.

Martin and the Invisible Wall

One unforgettable case is Martin, a cheerful-looking boy who lives with a grandmother addicted to alcohol and interested only in the child support money. He represents countless children battling fear, isolation, and the feeling of “having no place to stand.” When the adults around them never truly listen, these children often choose silence—and eventually, they “disappear” from a world that doesn’t understand them.

Will We Be the Ones Who Stay?

“Like the Others” doesn’t offer easy answers about how to help these children. Instead, it opens a space for us to “listen” and “feel”—to realize that understanding, care, and acceptance are the keys that slowly help a child face the world again. It’s a low-key documentary, but every scene is real—and it may forever change the way we see children.

This documentary is not a film to watch with your eyes alone. You must watch it with your “heart” because it might make you turn to the “silent” child beside you and ask…Are you really okay?

▶ Watch the documentary Like the Others

Watch now on www.VIPA.me or VIPA Application