Face to Face

Moving back into her old bedroom at her grandparents' house unsettles Dr. Jenny Isaksson, triggering anxiety and the first waves of unsettling memories. The familiar space feels claustrophobic and stirs dreams she cannot ignore. This marks the beginning of her psychological unraveling.

Jenny begins to have dream sequences and waking visions of a one-eyed old woman. The boundary between sleep and waking fades as these visions intensify her sense of unease. The dreams foreshadow deeper memories she will confront later.

At a party hosted by the ex-wife of a colleague, Jenny meets Tomas, a medical doctor who flirts with her. She agrees to go home with him, but they decide to meet again later for a potential encounter. The interaction hints at Jenny seeking connection amid her turmoil.

Mari, a disturbed patient, escapes from the mental hospital with two men who intend to take her to Jenny's address. When Jenny tries to call the police, the men assault her and attempt to rape her, stopping only when they cannot penetrate. The incident marks a cruel intersection of Jenny's personal and professional worlds.

Jenny accompanies Tomas to a concert and then returns with him, seeking a non-sexual embrace. She reveals that she longed for the rapist to have completed sex with her, but she cannot become aroused. The confession triggers a breakdown, and she asks to be sent home.

Jenny spends several days at her grandparents' home, then withdraws further and ends up recording a suicide note. She takes fifty Nembutals in a desperate act born of unresolved trauma and emotional numbness. This moment marks a turning point toward a more explicit confrontation with her past.

In a dream sequence, Jenny apologizes to herself and confronts memories she fears. She encounters an imagined Tomas and a comforting old woman before she opens a door she dreads. She wakes in a hospital bed to find Tomas has come to find her.

A subsequent dream places Jenny in a crowded room of patients while her grandfather confesses fear of dying and Anna appears, only for Anna to run away. The dream layers familial anxieties onto her personal crisis and medical responsibilities.

Jenny wakes to find her husband beside her, but he must return to America. She asks him to tell her grandmother the truth and pledges to speak to Anna, signaling a plan to confront family truths and her own past.

In another dream, Jenny searches for her parents at their funeral when she was nine. They initially abandon her but then return to comfort her, only for her to push them away. The vision crystallizes guilt and unresolved longing.

The next morning, Jenny shares her childhood memories with Tomas. He responds by revealing a hidden truth—that he was never divorced and had lived with a man for five years. The revelation destabilizes their interaction and triggers a hysterical reaction from Jenny.

In her last dream, Jenny attends her own funeral and wakes during the cremation. The dream intensifies the sense of mortality and the inescapable cycle of guilt that haunts her. The sequence culminates in a stark moment of self-confrontation.

A nurse tells Jenny that Anna wants to meet her. Jenny tries to explain, but the encounter goes poorly as Anna reveals she always believed Jenny never liked her and walks away. The moment underscores the rift between mother and daughter.

Tomas tells Jenny he will travel to Jamaica for an amoral vacation and may not return. The confession marks a sober end to their tentative bond and forces Jenny to face the fragility of connection.

Jenny returns to her grandmother, who believes she is simply fatigued. She is distressed by her husband’s impending death but offers comfort anyway. She then phones the mental hospital to say she will be in to work in the morning, signaling a reluctant return to duty.