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The Eternal Memory

Panorama Dokumente 2023
© Micromundo, Fabula
After 20 years of a fulfilling relationship, the well-known Chilean journalist and author Augusto Góngora and actor and later Chilean Minister of Culture Paulina Urrutia get married. When Góngora is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2014, his wife begins to record everyday moments and document her husband’s advancing illness on video. A mixture of television archive material, older private video recordings and recently shot scenes creates a tender portrait of a loving relationship in which small gestures and looks express intimacy more powerfully than words. However, moments of alienation and pain are not omitted and this allows us to sense both the tragedy of being trapped and the feeling of hopelessness that Góngora’s slide into oblivion creates for them both.
Using a collage-like montage that makes the film seem like a journey through the stages of an eventful life, Maite Alberdi traces the story of a man who has spent his whole life writing in a bid to prevent collective forgetting, but who is now himself gradually losing his memory.
by Maite Alberdi (Director, Screenplay)
with Paulina Urrutia, Augusto Góngora Chile 2023 Spanish 84' European premiere | Documentary Form

With

  • Paulina Urrutia
  • Augusto Góngora

Crew

Director Maite Alberdi
Screenplay Maite Alberdi
Cinematography Pablo Valdés
Editing Carolina Siraqyan
Music Miguel Miranda, José Miguel Tobar
Sound Juan Carlos Maldonado
Producers Maite Alberdi, Juan de Dios Larraín, Pablo Larraín, Rocio Jadue

World Sales

Dogwoof

London, United Kingdom

Produced by

Micromundo

Santiago, Chile

Fabula

Santiago, Chile

Photos

Maite Alberdi

After her 2011 feature film debut The Lifeguard, she made Tea Time in 2015 which won 12 international awards and was nominated for a Goya for Best Ibero-American Film. In 2016, she made the short film I’m Not from Here, which was nominated for the European Film Award, and the feature-length documentary The Grown-Ups, which won ten international prizes. Her fourth feature-length documentary The Mole Agent was the first documentary from Chile to be nominated for an Oscar.

Filmography (documentaries)

2011 The Lifeguard 2015 Tea Time 2016 I’m Not from Here; short film · The Grown-Ups 2020 The Mole Agent 2022 The Eternal Memory

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2023