Ever wondered what kind of lockdowns we would’ve had if covid had hit 30, 20 or even 10 years ago?
As bruising and wrought the whole experience was – and in some ways, continues to be – one of the upsides of covid, if we can take a glass-half-full approach for a moment, is that it unleashed a torrent of creativity online.
When we couldn’t bond in person, many tried to connect virtually in imaginative ways.
For the van Genderan family, from NSW’s Central Coast, a lockdown video featuring a makeshift supermarket in their family home to simulate a weekly shopping trip for Oma, their dementia-afflicted matriarch, went viral around the world, clocking up more than 100 million views .
The video and the family’s social media channels became a way for them to share their journey with Oma’s dementia, and Everybody’s Oma is filmmaker Jason van Genderen’s tribute to his mother and the whole family’s love and resilience.
It’s also a tribute to anyone who has a loved one with dementia, dealing with the heartbreak of watching them lose themselves as the symptoms take a firmer and firmer hold.
Shot purely on iPhones, Everybody’s Oma is at times an unflinching look at the day-to-day challenges of not just taking care of one person, but also the enormous emotional, physical and social toll taking care of Oma at home exacts takes on everyone else.
At its most moving moments, it’s not the footage of Oma that really hits, but the piece-to-camera confessions from Jason and his wife Megan. The camera – and the eventual audience – becomes a therapist or a priest, an outlet for them to express what they’re afraid to say out loud.
One specific admission from Jason is the kind of thing you would never allow yourself to think, let alone confront. There’s a lot of bravery in including it in the documentary and the fact Jason did speaks to his attempt to authenticity.
Taken out of context, the words are monstrous, but only someone incapable of empathy would judge him for how he felt. He was a man and a son exhausted and beaten down by the insidiousness of dementia.
There’s a lot of rawness in Everybody’s Oma and the iPhone footage helps to establish that intimate connection between the family and the audience. While the shots are crisp, it’s the nimbleness and largely unplanned nature of the sequences that makes you feel as if you’re part of it.
While it may seem as if all the harrowing realism of Everybody’s Oma makes this film a hard watch, it’s actually not.
There is a beating heart to this story, and it’s powered by love. That love is evident in every furrowed brow, every frustrated sight and every exasperated question of what’s next.
Everybody’s Oma is ultimately a stirring and uplifting feature because every difficult moment is testament to what humans are capable of in the name of love.
Rating: 3.5/5
Everybody’s Oma is in cinemas from Thursday, August 11
.