Short documentary, 20 minutes, to be released in autumn 2020
April 2020, the world comes to a standstill. People keep their distance. Doors are closed. Vulnerable groups are protected. Especially affected: elderly people in retirement and nursing homes. And their families. Life and dying take place shielded from the public, because of the pandemic.
What is it like, after a life of independence and self-reliance, to now live cut off from the outside world, in the care of a nursing or retirement home? What is it like to be a caregiver in this situation? The head of the institution? To work in the kitchen, cleaning, maintenance, the office? What is it like for relatives who can no longer visit? For residents who can no longer see their loved ones?
For twelve days, around the Easter family celebration, we go into self-isolation in a nursing home in the St. Gallen Rhine Valley. Open to whatever we encounter, and to what might emerge from the collected answers and material. With us: film and photo cameras and an audio recorder.
Numerous conversations at all hours of the day and night with staff, shared meals and garden walks with residents, and focused interviews with management come together into a whole that raises new questions. What has shaped a life? What endures? What gives meaning? What is a life in old age still worth?
With the simplest technical means, we immerse ourselves in the everyday life of the nursing home. Corona loses its central importance and fades into the background. The human being—with their questions, fears, and thoughts—becomes more important.
And yet: without the lockdown, the images and recordings, this kind of closeness to people, would not have been possible.
During the review of the material, together with Swiss filmmaker Michelle Brun (last collaboration: MARE NOSTRUM), its narrative potential became clear, and the decision was an obvious one: to shape the authentically intimate images, conversations, and footage into a short documentary film.
In post-production, Michelle Brun took the dramaturgical lead through editing and directing, weaving interviews, photos, film footage, and the letters and diary entries made available into an atmospheric whole.