AGATHA’S ALMANAC (Canada 2025) ***½
Directed by Amelie Atkins
AGATHA’S ALMANAC is a Canadian documentary film, directed by Amalie Atkins and released in 2025. The film is a portrait of her aunt Agatha Bock, a 90-year-old woman who still lives a fiercely independent life revolving around her passion for gardening. The film unfolds over the course of a year, using the changing seasons as its structure—much like a traditional almanac, and hence the film’s title.
AGATHA’S ALMANAC will inevitably be compared to Chantal Akerman’s 1975 masterpiece, Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, which was ranked the greatest film of all time in Sight & Sound magazine's 2022 "Greatest Films of All Time" critics poll, making her the first woman to top the poll. Both films show the subject working in real time, doing daily chores in their daily routines. Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles depicts long moments of the life of Jeanne Dielman in real time, which Akerman said "was the only way to shoot the film – to avoid cutting the action in a hundred places, to look carefully and to be respectful. The framing was meant to respect her space, her, and her gestures within it.” This also holds true for Agatha in AGATHA’S ALMANAC. The main difference is that the reviewed film is all true, while in the latter, the subject sees male clients during the day, and the film ends with her committing suicide.
The doc also tells of Agatha’s personal life, which she narrates in her own voice. She tells of her men numbered 1 to 3. Her number 3 is the one who told her that two people living together can do so cheaper than one. He took her for breakfast because it is cheaper than lunch. I am not going to marry someone like that, she says. She suffers from old age ailments, like bleeding, but she is happy that she has lived up to the age of 85. Story number 3 ended up getting married, according to Agatha, but not to her, Agatha jokes. As Agatha goes on her daily chores like harvesting her fruits and vegetables, jarring them, she talks about how they are done. For example, she seals fresh strawberries in air-sealed jars, and they are as fresh and crispy 10 days later as the first day. Agatha has remained single all her life, and in her own words, with no regret, as she has always found something to do and does not get lonely.
As pristine as Agatha’s lifestyle, the film is also a very pleasant and easy watch in which one can sit back and easer its the doc. Agatha lives a lifestyle of the past, she belongs to one of the old religious groups, the Mennonites, and she is self-sufficient and also self-sufficiently happy.
AGATHA’S ALMANAC also comes away with much critical acclaim. They won the juried award for Best Canadian Feature Documentary. The film was also long-listed for the 2025 Jean-Marc Vallée DGC Discovery Award and was named to the Toronto International Film Festival's annual year-end Canada's Top Ten list for 2025.
The film opens on Apr 3rd at the TIFF Lightbox.
Trailer:
THE BLUE TRAIL (Brazil/Mexico/Chile/Netherlands 2025) ****
Directed by Gabriel Mascaro
It is a dystopian future in Brazil, and seniors are given a hard time. They are forced to stop work and leave work for the younger population. At the same time, the government is forcing them to socialize in ways they deem acceptable to them. Tereza, 77, has lived her whole life in a small industrialized town in the Amazon until one day she receives an official government order to relocate to a senior housing colony. The colony is an isolated area where the elderly are brought to « enjoy » their final years, freeing the younger generation to focus fully on productivity and growth. Tereza refuses to accept this imposed fate. Instead, she embarks on a transformative journey through the rivers and tributaries of the Amazon to fulfill one last wish (her bucket list wish) before her freedom is taken away—a decision that will change her destiny forever. This is a very funny and timely film and one of the best films about seniors in a long time, and I am not talking COCOON here. The stunning cinematography of the rivers in the Amazon is simply breathtaking.
