Cult Corner: ‘Unrest’ Portrays The Unseen Horrors Of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

When we talk about streaming culture, we’re usually enthusing about what’s new, but one of the best things about streaming is how it’s made old and obscure cult hits available to a new generation. Presenting Cult Corner: your weekly look into hidden gems and long-lost curiosities that you can find on streaming.

Getting diagnosed with a life-changing and incurable disease is a horrifying prospect in and of itself, but diagnoses linked to chronic fatigue syndrome carry a whole new level of horror. Oftentimes people who suffer from chronic fatigue syndrome or similar afflictions have to suffer through a parade of doctors before they reach a doctor who will listen let alone a diagnosis, and all the while they’re forced to listen to countless jokes and criticisms about their perceived laziness. It’s physically torturous experience as well as a psychologically hurtful one that’s difficult for the average person to understand because almost all of this very real pain happens internally. However, Unrest goes a long way in capturing the unique hell that is living with chronic fatigue syndrome.

Unrest is a simultaneously informative and deeply personal documentary. The film follows its director, Harvard Ph.D. student Jennifer Brea. Brea details how she used to have an exciting and adventure-filled life, but as it became more and more difficult for her to get out of bed every morning, she started to realize that something was wrong. The first third of the documentary is dedicated to Brea’s personal struggle — how frustrating it was to no longer be able to do something as simple as get out of bed and how difficult it was to get a diagnosis. As Brea learns to cope with this new invisible pain that now guides her life, the director explores how many suffer from this specific type of pain. It’s through telling their stories that Unrest transforms from a haunting watch to an important one.

At one point in the film Brea states that 1 million people in America and 17 million people around the world deal with illnesses related to chronic fatigue syndrome. The remainder of Unrest reflects this diversity. From the forced confinement of her bedroom, Brea interviews people from around the world who suffer from chronic fatigue syndrome. Her subjects span the gambit of one young woman who has only been able to sit up a handful of times over the past few years to a mother who can still take care of her kids but whose illness has cost her a social life and her friends. In between these stories that have painstakingly been mocked by the mainstream media and comedians, there’s Brea. The documentary doesn’t shy away from showing her high moments, like an ecstatic hike during one of her good days, and her low ones, like the fights she has with her husband and insecurities she feels because of her diagnosis. Walking away from Unrest, viewers are given a small window into the unspoken pain these sufferers experience every day.

Personally, I don’t know anyone who suffers from chronic fatigue syndrome, but my mom was diagnosed with an energy-draining autoimmune disease when I was in high school. Sjogren’s Syndrome isn’t exactly like chronic fatigue syndrome, though it’s not uncommon for people who have been diagnosed with Sjogren’s to also receive a chronic fatigue syndrome diagnosis. It was impossible not to see similarities between Unrest and my mother’s journey of self-doubt and frustration, which eventually led to her diagnosis and new normal. I now have a better understanding of the unique torture that comes with these types of illnesses, but when she was first diagnosed, I wish I had a portrait as intimate, informative, and unabashedly honest as Unrest to help me better understand what she was going through. Unrest is a documentary all about making audiences understand an illness defined by internal pain, and on that front it’s an unquestionably successful if not sad film.

Stream Unrest on Netflix