Showing: 06 November 2024
Sarah Friedland's desperately moving debut feature film won multiple awards at the recent Venice Film Festival and it isn't hard to see why – except insofar as it can be hard to see anything through such wet eyes.
Starring a stunning Kathleen Chalfant in an award-winning performance as Ruth, a bright, capable eighty-something suddenly having to navigate her failing faculties, the film defies the cliches of the dementia drama genre with its extraordinarily even-handed compassion and the light and humour that seem to emanate from Ruth herself, even in dark times.
Her son (H. Jon Benjamin) is swallowing his heartbreak at the loss of a wonderful mother, her carers are trying to maintain boundaries in a profession that makes that almost impossible. And Ruth herself must come to terms with assisted living, when she has proudly and beautifully and for so long lived without anyone's assistance at all.
For information on the full BFF24 programme visit: www.belfastfilmfestival.org