How life just happens. Where it leads, without warning, without consideration of the consequences, without intention. As a filmmaker, Ralph Arlyck would appear to have captured his whole life on film. Not to mention that of his children and that of his parents; yet what remains of it all in the end? In this documentary film he reflects on age and the approaching the end of his life. What did he once think about "the elderly", what do "the elderly" today think of themselves? Arlyck digs up old film footage, finds stories from his past, from his parents' past and reflects on the relationship between generations. He wants to talk in the here and now. Some respond readily, some are surprised, others prove evasive. Even harder than looking at the past, it seems, is looking at what is inevitably to come; perhaps sooner rather than later. And yet despite the serious issues, despite the heightened gravity of the topic of death due to the corona pandemic, Arlyck's very personal documentation retains a certain lightness, containing as it does a healthy portion of pragmatism and acceptance. A profound and self-deprecating look at the reality and surprises of growing old, in the course of which the viewers hardly get to see Arlyck for themselves, instead experiencing him for the most part through the reactions of those who stand in front of his camera.
Text: Charlotte Kühn
English: Peter Rickerby
