The Inner Light

Encounters with dementia patients often leave healthy people with the feeling of being ‘lost in translation’. Moments in which those with dementia refer to their life experiences become increasingly fleeting, as if the fairly reliable connection that usually exists between intention and articulation, syntax and semantics, were in a constant process of dissolution. With great delicacy, director Stefan Sick takes a sensitive, observational approach to documenting life in a care home. Confronted with a world that is free of the past and future, a world in which only the experience of single moments counts, we rediscover with the protagonists the slowness, travails and beauty of everyday rituals. Sadness, joy and thoughtfulness are all allowed to speak for themselves without comment. By creating a strong emotional bond to the protagonists, the film makes their view of the world tangible, thereby revealing their inner light. (Berlinale)