Following her Oscar-nominated documentary The Mole Agent, director Maite Alberdi is back with another look at the oft-overlooked realm of geriatric life. The Eternal Memory, which picked up a Grand Jury Prize at Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, follows the story of Augusto and Paulina, who have been together and in love for 25 years. Eight years ago, their lives were forever changed by Augusto’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis. Ahead of an August 11 release, the first trailer has now arrived.
The synopsis continues, “As one of Chile’s most prominent cultural commentators and television presenters, Augusto is no stranger to building an archive of memory. Now he turns that work to his own life, trying to hold on to his identity with the help of his beloved Paulina, whose own pre-eminence as a famous actress and Chilean Minister of Culture predates her ceaselessly inventive manner of engaging with her husband. Day by day, the couple face this challenge head-on, relying on the tender affection and sense of humor shared between them that remains, remarkably, fully intact.”
Jose Solís said in his Sundance review, “Filmmaker Maite Alberdi seems keen to remind us non-fiction cinema can belong to different genres rather than reinforce some notion that they are a genre unto themselves. In the delightful The Mole Agent she delivered a thriller of the absurd; a bittersweet detective movie in which an elderly man infiltrates a nursing home where there are suspicions of elderly abuse. With The Eternal Memory, she tackles romance and tells one of the most moving love stories in ages.”
See the trailer below.
The Eternal Memory will open on August 11.