"The Path I Didn't Choose" Director Sally Potter How do we connect with people? [Director's Interview Vol.185]

Director Sally Potter has produced artistically excellent films such as `` Orlando '' (1992), `` Tango Lessons '' (1997), and ``Your Singing Voice '' (2000). Her latest work, "The Path I Didn't Choose," depicts the story of a day in the life of a father suffering from dementia and his daughter.

This film was written by the director himself, based on his experience caring for his brother when he was diagnosed with early-onset dementia. What is life? What is family? What is memory? Questions about human life are convincingly spelled out.

In an interview with the director, we got a glimpse of his inquisitive spirit toward life and his strong will to express it through film. Sally Potter's words were full of intellectual curiosity.

“The Path I Didn’t Choose” Synopsis

Leo (Javier Bardem), a Mexican immigrant living in New York, is a writer, but he suffers from dementia and cannot survive without someone's help, making it difficult for him to communicate with his daughter Molly (Elle Fanning) and other helpers. The situation had become. One morning, Molly shows up at Leo's apartment to take him to the hospital. Even though Molly is next to him, Leo travels back and forth in his mind to his hometown of Mexico, where he met First Love love, and to Greece, where he traveled alone after getting stuck in his life as a writer, and sees a completely different landscape than Molly. .

Index

• What is the value of being sick?
• Are past memories The Truth?
• Why are humans connected?
• Movies have the potential to resonate all over the world.

What is the value of being sick?

Q: The main character, Leo, is suffering from dementia and leprosy, but strangely, he never feels sad. I felt like I had a very positive outlook on life.

Potter: Movies that focus on illness tend to have a tragic tone. Once you have dementia, it may be difficult to find value in it. But in this movie, Leo shows us an unusual path. Since he developed dementia, he has been able to see the world in a different way. By getting sick, you realize the various qualities within yourself.

“The path I didn’t choose” © BRITISH BROADCASTING CORPORATION AND THE BRITISH FILM INSTITUTE AND AP (MOLLY) LTD. 2020

When I talk to people with disabilities, they say that being able-bodied is temporary for everyone. Everyone gets sick from time to time, and from time to time they all experience depression. And of course, at the end of life, they become weak and die. It just so happens that he is temporarily healthy.

If you understand that getting dementia is a part of life, the way you deal with it will change. You will be able to affirm your life.