RUTH SOMALO

Living with chronic pain and with the impediments of the associated symptoms of fibromyalgia (FMS) is nothing
compared to living in shame. Woman affected by FMS are often distrusted, misdiagnosed or not at all diagnosed.
In a general context of suspicion they live overmedicated and accused of exaggerating, faking their illness, or of
somatization. The roles traditionally fulfilled by women: daughter, wife, mother, care taker, house keeper; and the
new ones defined by sex, beauty, happiness, education and workplace are impacted directly by the symptoms of
fibromyalgia leaving this women to wonder were their value lays now. Theirs is the crisis of everyone who has to
redefine themselves against productivity or something other than the roles our society values.
This documentary journeys into the biographies of several women affected by FMS and the narratives they have
constructed around the development of their illness and the medical pilgrimage they were subjected to until finding
Dr Palop and his team of medical experts in Valencia. Exploring the objective and subjective elements of living with
this chronic condition this documentary sites with the patients, taking them as “ultimate experts” of their own
illnesses rather than creating a documentary were the power and the voice is given to the medical experts and the
media analysts. The protagonists, digging deeper into the traumatic episodes and emotional aspects of their
biographies through the interaction with the camera; and trapped in the tension between their current images and
the representations of their younger, healthier, analogue selves; come to great insights and establish possible
connections to the development of their illness and current identities.