Sylvia is a social worker, she leads a simple and orderly life – daughter, work, AA meetings. The situation changes when she returns from her high school reunion and is followed by Saul. An unexpected meeting will have a profound impact on both of them, opening a door to the past.
For the script and direction “Memory” replies MichelFranco (“The Guardian”, “Sundown”). Oscar winner Jessica Chastain (“The Eyes of Tammy Faye”, “Asylum”) plays Sylvia, a single mother struggling with a traumatic past. Her partner is Peter Sarsgaard (“Citizen Jones”, “Batman”) as Saul, a man suffering from dementia who is isolated from the world by his family. Michel Franco creates their story with delicacy and sensitivity, showing a relationship that gives the characters a substitute for security and closeness.
“It’s hard to tell stories about trauma, painful experiences from the past. So many people have gone through horrific experiences and found ways to move forward. I’m sure almost everyone knows people who have experienced very dark things in their lives. As you prepare for film, I spend a lot of time creating stories for the characters I play. Even if it has nothing to do with movie scenes, I create this type of story because then I can be closer to my heroine, I can understand her better. It’s very inspiring that Sylvia develops a relationship with Saul, really the only person who sees her only in the moment they meet. She doesn’t have to explain anything from the past, who she is, only what matters ‘here and now’. I think this is extremely inspiring in this relationship,” Jessica Chastain said in an interview for Variety.
“My uncle had early-onset dementia. It’s very difficult to imagine such a severe disease in someone my age. I thought I really had something to say about this character. I also noticed that the portrayal of dementia in other films I had seen didn’t seem like it. just like him. One of the things I loved about my uncle was that whenever someone he had never met showed up, he would say, ‘Hi! How are you? It’s good to see you. How are you?’. He wanted everything to be fine until the very end. I thought it was a good opportunity to play someone who suffers from this disease but wants to be positive for everyone at every moment, until the last second. You think of this disease as something that takes away your personality, but it doesn’t have to be like that,” Peter Sarsgaard recalled in an interview with Variety.
Michel Franco’s film has already won the award for best actor for Peter Sarsgaard, which was awarded during the Venice International Film Festival. It was also shown in Toronto, San Sebastian and London, where it was very positively received by viewers and critics. The Polish premiere took place at the American Film Festival in Wrocław.