Kumu Documentary: Two Strangers Trying Not to Kill Each Other
Dir Jacob Perlmutter, Manon Ouimet
United Kingdom, Denmark and USA 2024, 100 min
In English, Italian and French, with English subtitles
A heart-warming story about the life and friendship of two kindred spirits growing old together.
The American Joel Meyerowitz, 84, is an internationally acclaimed photographer who has published 40 books. His British wife, Maggie Barrett, nine years his junior, is a novelist, pianist and painter who has struggled to gain recognition for her work. They have lived and grown old together in love and pain for 30 years. They argue, embrace, create, joke, doubt, support and travel together as almost invisible cameras follow the complexities of a long-term relationship over the course of a year. An incredible intimacy, trust and love surround them.. Maggie and Joel have nothing to hide, even in the shadow of death.
Another pair of directors, Manon & Jacob, wisely manipulate some scenes, sometimes filming Joel and Maggie separately, using flashbacks of old personal photos to set up their past and present history, living with them in New York and Tuscany, and following them at random until an unexpected incident intervenes. Romantic, funny and frank, this documentary is one of the hottest on the festival circuit, after receiving a special mention at CPH:DOX.
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