Years ago I worked as an orderly in a long care facility for seniors in Montreal. The money was good but it was shift work much of the time. 23:00 hours to 07:00 was the worst shift. However it helped finance university and provide for travel funds. There were many “spaced out” residents but in those days who heard of Alzheimer’s?
Fast forward to the widespread acknowledgement of Alzheimer’s as a disease and my initial thoughts at that time were that it just might be a pleasant way to move on to the next world. A little mental fog then a huge fog and death. Thank goodness for documentary films as I saw one several years ago, now forgetting the name, where a son documented his mother’s Alzheimer’s over several years. Alzheimer’s may start gently but as the mental fog strangles the memory there is not only a total collapse of memory but physical deterioration leading to death. That documentary made a huge impact on me. Alzheimer’s is a nasty disease that kills memory and then the body. A double-edged disease.
“The Eternal Memory” chronicles the Alzheimer’s deterioration of Chilean author and journalist Augusto Góngara and the struggle of his wife Paulina Urrutia, a famous Chilean actress and former Minister of National Culture, to care and nurture Augusto and to retain his memory. It is a losing battle she fights with compassion. While it is a study of Alzheimer’s ultimately it is also a tragic love story.
If you seek to understand the progression of Alzheimer’s this is a must view. No matter who it strikes it is an unpleasant story. One might argue the loss of Augusto’s memory is more painful to witness due to his intellectual background where a highly functioning brain is a given.
Augusto, as a television journalist chronicled Captain General Augusto Pinochet’s murderous Chilean military rule from 17December1974-11March1990. Countless murders, executions, beatings, disappearances of opponents. His co-authored book “Chile the Prohibited Memory” in 1997 dealt with the damaged collective memory of the Pinochet years. The view that a nation doesn’t know who it is without a memory. So a philosophical treatise now becomes Augusto’s personal story and with his deterioration his memory grows fainter, his frustration and anger increases but a viewer might assume his love for Paulina somehow remains eternal.
Directed by Maite Alberdi the director of the lighthearted “The Mole Agent” directs the film. You can see my review of “The Mole Agent” here https://setthebarlifestyle.wordpress.com/2021/03/19/the-mole-agent-nominated-for-best-dochttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-hxO7_oEZwumentary-feature-at-the-93rd-academy-awards/
Winner of the Sundance 2023 World Cinema Grand Jury Prize.
Opens in New York on August 11th Los Angeles/San Francisco on August 18th with a U.S. select city rollout by MTV Documentary Films following.
You can see the trailer here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-hxO7_oEZw
RKS 2023 Film Rating: 93/100.
Augusto Góngara died on May 19, 2023.
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