Insanely Dangerous

In January 2004 Niels hijacked a train. A tv-crew was on the spot. They found that this was not a story about a hijacker but the story of a psychotic man not getting proper care and the story about how his madness influences other people’s lives. During the last 20 years, the number of mentally ill committing crimes has quadrupled. Often psychiatrists and families have to remain passive while the mentally ill person becomes more and more dangerous “Insanely Dangerous” gives a unique opportunity to understand the mind of a mentally ill person. Niels, the hijacker, has made his own video diaries when he is seriously psychotic, and this material allows the audience into the very strange and very scaring universe of a psychotic mind. Niels describes himself as Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. When medicated he is a sympathetic, bright and creative young man. When not medicated he turns insanely dangerous. Producing the program raised a lot of ethical issues, because of the very special conditions of the main character. How can you make decent and proper deals with a main character that is much of his time insanely mad and totally fails to have any idea of how to take care of himself? How can you make sure that your main character knows the consequences of his participation in a tv-program?