Lost Ones

Background

A high number of unreported cases of abuse is never reported. Often the people concerned lack the language for what happened. They remain silent. Sometimes a whole life. They are mostly determined by feelings of fear and shame. Fear of publicity. The feeling of being responsible for the desires of others. And, last but not least, the fear that they will not be believed. There is a fatal 'spiral of silence' around the taboo subject of abuse.

The #MeToo debate has shown that shame is still present even when the topic has long since been started. That a social climate for open dialogue about abuse has not yet been created. Every second woman in Germany has already experienced sexual harassment. Every year one million children and young people are affected by sexual violence. There is at least one child in every school class who is unrecognised as being affected. So how can one find a language for something that is invisible?

"Lost Ones" gives a statistically significant number its face back. The story of Maria.