The Manifestation of Validation in Midsommar
Ari Aster’s 2019 film Midsommar isn’t ground breaking in how it explores trauma. I would look to Hereditary if someone asked me for a better example. However, how Midsommar and the character of Dani have helped validate experiences I thought no one else could understand. When I watched Midsommar recently, I watched through the lens of an individual who had has spent over 5 years in therapy for Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. It was as though Aster had been spending time in my head. Either that or he has such an incredible grasp on the confronting elements of mental health and anxiety. Aster is so perfectly able to project the anxiety responses that feel so incredibly genuine to where Dani’s journey helped validate my own.
After the heart breaking loss of her family, Dani is confronted with the start of her healing process. We see Dani curled up in bed, experiencing shock and processing loss. When told by her boyfriend Christian that he is going to a party, she exclaims she will join him. It is the Spring of her rebirth and recovery. This is an important step in mental health care and it’s a confronting realisation that we have to endure as part of the process. Stepping foot into that social situation shows Dani’s determination to work towards her recovery. With every mental health journey, there are setbacks and we see that reflected in her disassociated state whilst the world continues around her. When disassociating, I have felt like I have disconnected my brain from everything around me. My hearing is unfocused, and I lose time. We hear the conversation going on around Dani muffled and no focus being taken by her. When watching this scene, I remember yelling to myself, “Dani is disassociating!” and seeing it on my television screen as a physical embodiment in a character rather than my own imperceptible experience was validating and empowering. It was a validating experience to watch this scene and know that Aster, deep down inside, knows how these things manifest within us without a single person recognising the signs—unless they have been there themselves.
Later in the film, we see Dani experiencing many panic attacks caused by stressful situations that she doesn’t know how to cope with. The intensity that these come over her with reflects the uncertain nature of the anxiety that hits her like a freight train. It is in these moments I see the heart-crushing pain and suffering that come crashing back to her in waves; loss, grief, uncertainty, and love. Watching Dani experience her panic attacks in private spaces showed these experiences are not ones we like to share with others, ones we don’t want to burden the ones around us with. We take ourselves to dark and alone places to further isolate ourselves whilst we lose our ability to breathe and revert into primal instinct mode to protect our hearts and brains. It was in these moments that validated my feelings of needing to be alone when I was in darkness. Although I always felt like I would never return, Dani showed me the most important part of the journey - that we can make it out alive.
While the character of Pele is quite problematic, he doesn’t go without his merits. How he interacts with Dani and those around him is something that I have seen in my friends. Pele is the friend that genuinely wants to help you throughout your journey but isn’t sure what they need to do to help you get there. He stumbles his way through the entire process with Dani, providing a place of comfort and friendship. Pele provides a safe place for Dani to explore her trauma and emotions leading to her publicly grieve the anger and sadness that she has endured. Without this type of friendship, I would have suffered more than I could have coped with regarding my recovery, it is my friends like Pele who even though they didn’t completely understand what I was experiencing, grit their teeth and learned alongside me for my sake.
Although the last moments of the film are brutal and unsettling, for me these moments are the ones that show me rebirth and renewal. Whilst living with C-PTSD can be confusing, debilitating, isolating and frightening, they give us small slices of warmth and comfort that signal to us that there is hope. Watching Dani as she looks at the barn burning down with a grin on her face is a moment of relishing in being able to say goodbye to the past and what has held her back for so long. It might not mean that Christian deserved his fate, but the fire that envelops him symbolises the cleansing of Dani’s slate so that she can step into the future. It’s a moment that we all look forward to, the day we wake up with a fire burning in our soul as we shake free the bonds of trauma and sadness.
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