Never before have so many children and young people suffered from unexplained symptoms. The majority of those affected are teenage girls. Two doctors at the University Hospital in Tromsø specialize in treating the undiagnosable. Two doctors in Tromsø struggle to help young people with unaccountable symptoms, while four patients share their struggle to understand their symptoms – and regain a normal life. Their lives are put on hold by illnesses no one can explain. Behind them are families desperate for answers and two doctors who refuse to give up. Hans Petter Fundingsrud and Elin Drivenes specialize in seeing patterns that others have missed. By asking questions patients have never heard before, they approach an explanation, answer by answer. How can we as a society accept that so many young people lose their youth to unnamed diseases? And is there a treatment that can give them their lives back?

‘Teenage Life Interrupted’ delves into these questions. With rare access to consultations, we follow the work of doctors, the hopes of patients and the frustrations of parents. The movie highlights a theme that is under communicated in today's society, and has a potential to change how we talk about, treat and do further research in this field. Filmmaker Åse Drivenes brings us close to both the young people and the doctors trying to help them. Their joint attempt to reach a recovery is both touching and overwhelming in a film about emotion and hope.

Film Discussion with:

PD Dr. Julia Wager, Head of Research German Paediatric Pain Centre

moderated by: Katrin Ohlendorf (Journalist) 

Funded by the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR)
Science Year 2026 – Medicine of the Future