Forgotten Fools

In July 1992, a group of patients from a psychiatric clinic in Jakeš in Bosnia were driven from their country by war. Since 1996 they have been living in clean if not exactly homely rooms in part of a refugee centre in Debrecen, Hungary. The makers of Forgotten established contact with the patients, who want nothing more than to return home. They converse with them in front of doctors, who express surprise that a place cannot be found for the patients anywhere in their own country. Later in Bosnia they meet a psychiatrist from the former institute; old video recordings show the building, ravaged by war, and patients rambling about, unable to escape. A sentimental song on the soundtrack accompanies images of the filmmakers visiting relatives in heavy snow and presenting them face to face with the patients' wishes. However, the responses are all similar and reveal not a hint of responsibility: none of them want to know that the patients have been sent abroad. And because Bosnia lacks both doctors and medicines the families and the director of a new institute believe it would be the best for the "forgotten crazies" to remain in Hungary.