Menschen hautnah: Gefangen im Schweigen

Nia is 14 and faces the same question every morning: What if someone asks me something today? At school, she can’t get a word out—even though she could say anything. Selective mutism is the name of the anxiety disorder she lives with—a condition that is often misunderstood as mere shyness or even stubbornness. Eighteen-year-old Mary feels exactly the same way. When she wants to order something at a restaurant, her sister Vanessa has to speak for her.

Mary from Berlin and Nia from a village in the Sauerland region live with selective mutism. As soon as strangers are around, they fall silent. Not a word comes out of their mouths. Yet they are full of thoughts, humor, anger, and dreams. For Nia, school is a place of fear. Few people know why she doesn’t speak. Together with her therapist, she takes a courageous step: her class is to learn what lies behind the silence.
Mary’s mutism is severe. She almost never speaks in public. And when she does, it’s only very quietly and in single words. Her room is her sanctuary; her older sister Vanessa is often her voice. Mary loves music, bakes at night to combat her restlessness, and dreams of training to become a pastry chef. But as her 18th birthday approaches, the question looms larger: How independent can a life be when every trip to the government office becomes an insurmountable hurdle?

Nia is 14 and faces the same question every morning: What if someone asks me something today? At school, she can’t get a word out—even though she could say anything. Selective mutism is the name of the anxiety disorder she lives with—a condition that is often misunderstood as mere shyness or even stubbornness. Eighteen-year-old Mary feels exactly the same way. When she wants to order something at a restaurant, her sister Vanessa has to speak for her.
As different as their worlds are—Berlin here, village life there—Mary and Nia are united by silence. And by the desire to no longer let it control them. Menschen hautnah follows them over two years as they come of age. Mary and Nia show how much strength they possess, how keen their perception is. The extent of their longing for self-determination.

A film about fear and new beginnings. And about perhaps the most important question of youth: How do I find my own voice?

A production by Dokness on behalf of WDR 2026.