What happens when life lasts longer than love?

ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS

Claudia Abend and Adriana Loeff are documentary filmmakers living in Montevideo, Uruguay. Abend’s debut was in 2001 with El Comienzo del Fin, a sensitive and personal short film about the end of the dictatorship in Uruguay.

In 2008, Abend and Loeff premiered their first feature-length in collaboration, Hit, which tells the hidden stories behind some of the most famous songs in their country. With humor and sensitivity, the film reflects upon memory, fame and oblivion.

Hit topped the national box office and ran for three months in theaters. It was also part of the official selection of Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema (BAFICI) and received, among others, an award for best film editing and music from Uruguay’s Association of Film Critics.

Their second collaboration, La Flor de la Vida, premiered in November 2017 at IDFA, as part of the official selection of the festival. The film tells the intimate story of a marriage through five decades, in a reflection on the passing of time and its impact on feelings and relationships.

The documentary received support from The Filmmaker Fund, Sundance Institute, FONA, Montevideo Socio Audiovisual and Montevideo Filma. It was part of Sundance Edit and Story Lab and participated in several pitches, including DocMontevideo, DocsDF and Doc Buenos Aires.

Currently, Abend and Loeff are developing a documentary series and a new feature-length film.

La Flor de la Vida began with an advert in the newspaper: “If you are over 80 years old and want to share your story, give us a call.”

We were looking for answers, as any director is when embarking on a new film, a personal search that felt cathartic: how do we face the challenges of a long-term relationship? How can we come to terms with the decay inherent in aging, as we see it in our own parents, and in ourselves? Could someone reaching the finish line exorcize the fear of death?

Surprisingly —or not— dozens of seniors responded to our cryptic ad. And so we invited them to an empty theater and, for several days, just asked and listened.

Among their many voices, one stood out. It was that of a man, Aldo, who claimed to be the perfect protagonist in a film that didn’t yet exist. But it wasn’t that conceited attitude that seduced us: it was the fact that, beneath that narcissistic veneer, we began to discover layers of conflict, of loneliness and love, of longing, of humanity. And when we met his wife, Gabriella, we felt the picture was complete.

Meeting this couple, learning about their struggles over the years, their crises and reconciliations, was like opening a door into the very fears and fantasies that had led us to dive into this universe in the first place.

We often wondered if people would care about this minimal story. Several months ago, La Flor de la Vida was part of the Sundance Doc Edit & Story Lab at Sundance, Utah. It was the last rough cut to be screened, after films on a deadly epidemic, an unknown disease, the birth of a civil rights movement…

After watching all these compelling stories, we began to feel unease. These documentaries dealt with important and relevant issues that will have an impact on the lives of many people. Who would care about a love story?

But something surprising happened. Once the screening was over, the participants —directors, editors, critics— began sharing their emotions and their personal stories, discussing how they identified with the characters, how they feared they may follow the same path.

How is it possible that a film about a couple that is struggling with the challenges of love and time can move us so deeply?

Our story talks about life itself, and dwells on the most essential of our worries and fantasies. No one can escape the passing of time, the pain of loneliness, the fatigue of a routine and a life together. Most of us have had to fight for a relationship that has faced crises and doubts, and have made mistakes that we had to pay for. Most of us have parents, friends or people we know who are struggling with the hardships of ageing.

In watching Aldo and Gabriella’s life unfold, the film invites us to rethink our own existence, reflect upon our decisions and question our own beliefs about love, marriage and time.

In a way, the film goes against our prejudices, because it shows the struggles people go through to be happy and, most importantly, to be dignified until the last day of their lives.

La Flor de la Vida becomes then a reflection on the challenges of growing old, a crystal ball for us to look into our own possible fate and, perhaps, change it.