Awake in a Bad Dream

Sabrina, Vicky, and Ingrid are three extraordinarily brave women who allow filmmakers to accompany them on their fraught journeys through diagnosis and treatment for breast cancer. AWAKE IN A BAD DREAM is an intimate, commentary-free documentary that shows the different ways in which these women – aided by strong family support systems—keep fighting to maintain their dignity and their womanhood. Ingrid loves to dance to Greek music. Feeling out of balance with one breast amputated, she opts for reconstruction. Vicky is a no-nonsense gardener who sings motivational songs while tramping with her dogs through the countryside. A self-diagnostician, she wants to know exactly what’s happening in her body. Sabrina is a chatty young hairdresser who loses her hair to chemo. All are in the gentle care of Dr. Emiel Rutgers, Surgical Oncologist at the Netherlands Cancer Institute. “Are you ok?” he asks Ingrid after one harrowing procedure. “Sure,” she replies resolutely, “I’m still here.” (In Dutch with subtitles) —B.B.