The duo has been following the families for a year and has been to Sweden five times during the work with the documentary. Now, the movie Life overtakes me, or, The Apathetic Children as it is called in Swedish, has been nominated for an Oscar in the best card documentary category.

The film premiered on Netflix 2019.

- That the film is there is fantastic for the families and other refugee families in Sweden. That will mean many more people will see it and we hope it affects how Sweden handles refugees, said the film's one director John Haptas at the Chicago Critics Film Festival 2019.

Gellert Tamas participates

Fifteen years ago, the issue of the so-called apathetic refugee children was widely debated in Sweden. A debate that came to life again in 2019 after the Filters magazine's report Unrushed calls in which two adult former apathetic children told how they were manipulated by their parents to simulate apatin.

The film does not address the debates except in a voice-over by journalist Gellert Tamas, who says:

"Rumors spread at that time: 'The kids are faking it. They just pretend to be sick, or the parents poison the children '. And these were the rumors spread by politicians. But it turned out that these rumors are what we call 'fake news' today, propaganda from right-wing extremists. "

Want to create emotional contact with viewers

John Haptas spoke at the Chicago Critics Film Festival 2019 that it was important for them not to speculate on theories about what the syndrome is due to in the film.

- We did not want to delude ourselves into the many theories that exist about what causes the syndrome, why it exists precisely in Sweden or in how to treat it best. We wanted the viewer to have emotional contact with the affected families, he said.

How it goes for the film we find out during the Oscars gala which takes place the night between Sunday 9 February and Monday 10 February, Swedish time.