Why we picked it – A quirky, but poignant feature to kick off the New Year and the second half of our season.

Synopsis – The family of a nursing home resident are concerned about her welfare and their private investigator, Romulo Aitken, hires 83 year-old Sergio Chamy to go under-cover. He is excited to have something to do! The film starts as a geriatric Pink Panther documentary; but life takes over and, gradually, it focuses on the micro-society of the carers and residents, becoming a more sombre look at ageing.

The film – Maite Alberti set out to make a modern film-noir spy movie but the mole that Romulo usually employs had broken his hip. He is a hard bitten ex-policeman. It would have been a completely different movie. His substitute Sergio is hapless with technology. Much of his camera glasses footage was unusable and he struggles with the smartphone. You may wonder about the set-up and privacy issues inherent in filming in the nursing home. Alberti admits that there was deception on her part to begin with. However, consents were however obtained and Sergio’s humanity and the true scandal of loneliness that he reveals redeem the film.

Director: Maite Alberdi, Cinematography: Pablo Valdés, Chile 2020 84 mins (PG)

Chile’s submission for Best International Feature film at the 2021 Oscars.

Links – imdb entry Daily Telegraph review Time Out review

Trivia – Romulo Aitken has recently been exposed as involved in a drug trafficking network while being a public detective. Maybe there is another film there.