The Ground Beneath Our Feet
Director(s): Yrsa Roca Fannberg
Film description: Winter turns to summer and back again for a group of elderly people living together in a grand old building in Reykjavík — an institution, but also a home.
Preceded by “Eight Walls Two Doors”
ERIC SAYS Cinema has given us many powerful documentary and hybrid portraits of aging, from Brian M. Cassidy and Melanie Shatzky’s Patron Saints to Sarah Friedland’s Familiar Touch (New/Next 2024). The Ground Beneath Our Feet, Iceland’s entry for Best International Feature at the 99th Academy Awards, quietly shines alongside the best of them.
Shot in the Grund nursing home on shimmering 16mm celluloid by Wojciech Staron in a manner that feels unobtrusive, compassionate, and painterly, The Ground Beneath Our Feet is not a film that prioritizes shock or sadness, but rather the quiet everyday rhythms, routines, and even pleasures of old age in a care facility. What emerges is not one story, but a multi-dimensional group portrait looking head-on at a challenging but potentially quite fulfilling phase of life from which we too often look away.
Country of origin: Iceland/Poland
Duration: 87 min
Premiere status: Maryland premiere
