Goran Paskaljevic, Special Treatment / Poseban tretman (Yugoslavia, 1980)

Paskaljevic's Special Treatment covers, or uncovers, some of the ways in which authoritarian power functions as it simultaneously ridicules the central figure of power. Sounds like typical bar talk but this topic may not be surprising when sketching similarities between Special Treatment and Who's Singing Over There? ( Dusan Kovacevic is the screenwriter for both films ) Both Who'se Singing Over There and Special Treatment extract and ridicule the dark sides of fascist communism through the frame of a voyage, one being a bus ride and the other, a pseudo-psychological voyage, by bus and otherwise, through treatment respectively.

Dr. Ilić has developed a new treatment for addiction and he takes several alcoholics with him on a retreat. At the center of his theory is the catch-phrase will-power. But his intention to help his patients develop their will-power turns into his imposition of goals and wishes onto the people. His methodology is appropriately critiqued by some of the patients who blame the others for submitting and being the doctor’s parrot.

At the start of the bus ride to the treatment center, Dr. Ilić begins to stink of Nazi mentality, and the emission increases as the film continues. Dr. Ilić regenerates his own legacy by handing down a Red Riding Hood sort of life to his son. He actually reads Red Riding Hood to the boy on the bus and later alludes to the story when advising his son to stick to the path after the boy had picked flowers to give to Jelena. Recall that the story suggests a straight path ideal where the course of life is laid out before you and your part is to simply walk the line, never mind about imagination or whim. The therapeutic treatment for people then, on a societal level, is crushing those groups, or the red riding hoods everywhere, who presumably cannot walk the straight path.

Purity is of course politicized by fascist governments to make essential the hierarchical assortment of the wealthy and powerful, while degrading the less privileged, the foreigner, or whichever other. Dr. Ilić, a lover of nature and classical music, insists that his patients eat apples because they are wholesome and therapeutic. He imposes his utopia onto his patients and any breaking of rules, or straying, are obvious signs of moral decay. The utopian vision takes on ridiculous forms as acted out by the patients. Dr. Ilić has his patients running around flapping their arms because doves symbolize freedom. In a weird confessional theater, directed by Dr. Ilić, the patients recount painful histories as if to purge all of the bad while exaggerating the negative outcomes of alcoholism for all to fear. But its obvious that the personal narratives are far more complex than Dr. Ilić's fable making theater allows. The suicide confession takes on the theme of domestic violence, but the actor is quickly shut up and redirected to the actual source of her alcoholism: her underdeveloped will-power.

The delusional quasi-utopian theory Dr. Ilić envisions not only degrades his patients when played out in reality (especially during the slightly painful-to-watch play scene), it masks his own corruption. His intentions turn out to be of a rather selfish nature. He gathers up the alcoholics to cure them with his plan for the betterment of society. However, he is in fact the sneaky wizard of Oz who exploits his patients so that he will one day rule over Winkie Country, or the Medical Field.