“A long goodbye”, a virtual reality film by Belgian filmmakers Kate Voet and Victor Maes, has received a prize within the context of the Venice International Film Festival.
The film follows a day in the life of 72-year-old Ida, a pianist with dementia whose memories are triggered by objects in her house and by recordings of her husband, and it slowly but surely becomes clear that not only Ida is struggling with loss, the loss of her memory, but her husband Daniel is also struggling to maintain connection with her.
All of these topics are well within Voet’s wheelhouse as her projects often deal with loss, the line between memory and imagination, and identity. The theme is also deeply personal to Maes, however. As the filmmakers have said, “we were drawn to this theme because of Victor’s grandfather who lived with Alzheimer’s disease, and whose health declined rapidly after Victor’s grandmother passed. The experience of having witnessed this emotional transformation close by, made us explore how dementia is experienced and how it influences the relationship with your past, with yourself and with your loved ones.” A deeply personal production, in other words.
As the film is VR, it was entered into the Venice Immersive competition for, well, immersive productions at the Venice International Film Festival. A long goodbye was also selected for various other international formats like IDFA Doclab Forum and VR Days.
Well done to these Belgian filmmakers!
Source: Focus on Belgium
