Birds Eye View - Emerging Women Filmmakers
Home Festival Tours Education Support Us Press Contact

FILM FESTIVAL 2007
CALENDAR 2007
OPENING NIGHT
FEATURES
SHORTS
DOCUMENTARIES

ACTION AID

BRING A BABY
FINE ART TO FILM
MEET THE FILMMAKERS
ELECTRIC LADYLAND: MUSIC VIDEOS
WORKSHOPS & MASTERCLASSES
SOUND AND SILENTS: LIVE MUSIC TO SILENT FILM
AWARDS
PARTIES
SPEAKERS AND PRESENTERS
EDUCATION
FESTIVAL VENUES & BOOKING
SPONSORS

FILM: BIRDS EYE VIEW FILM FESTIVAL

Away From Her

[Sarah Polley, Canada, 2006, 110' event total 120' ]
Friday 9th March ICA CINEMA 1: 8.30PM

Based on the short story "The Bear Who Came Over the Mountain" by Alice Munro, this is the UK premiere of cult indie actress Sarah Polley’s astounding directorial debut.

Away From Her stars the magnificent, Oscar© nominated Julie Christie as a middle-aged woman (Fiona) suffering from Alzheimer’s. After a subsequent outing results in her confusedly staying out in the cold for hours, she decides to check herself in to a nearby deluxe rest home. Husband Grant fears the stay will become permanent, and might hasten Fiona's decline. Still, she insists, despite the facility's policy barring all visitors and phone calls for the patient's first 30 days. When fellow patient Aubrey becomes the object of Fiona’s affections, Grant must draw upon his love for Fiona to perform an act of self-sacrifice in order to ensure her happiness.

‘The pain of watching a spouse succumb to Alzheimer's is given a particularly deep and sensitive treatment in Away From Her’ – Hollywood Reporter.

Sarah Polley has won key awards for her acting roles in independent productions ‘My Life Without Me’ (Isabel Coixet) and Wim Wenders latest ‘Don’t Come Knocking’. She wowed critics at Toronto with this first foray into directing for her maturity and strong writing abilities… the film hailed as ‘a gracefully wrought study of a long-term marriage being wedged apart by Alzheimer's’ (variety).