The Closer We Get
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The Closer We Get

Movie · 2014Documentary
IMDb

We witness the 50-year relationship of her parents - Ann and Ian - from glimpses of family archive to their present intimacy, unexpectedly-renewed in old age and shared with Karen on camera. The wisdom and wit of Karen's mother Ann, severely physically disabled, floors our expectations and shows us a mischievous and powerful figure still at the helm of her life and of this film. Just weeks before Ann's near-fatal stroke in 2008, Karen had made a pact with her to make a film together. Despite being in Ann's words, 'rivetingly normal' , they both knew their family story was anything but that. It's just that its protagonist - Karen's father, the endearing yet unfathomable Ian - isn't much of a talker, so they were going to have to do the detective work themselves. Shelved in the fallout of Ann's illness, this film is reborn, when - apart for the many years since Ann had discovered his 'other' son Campbell, born in Africa in 1988 and now living nearby in Scotland - Ian moves back in under her roof as one of her carers, under the watchful eye of Karen and her camera.

Directed byKaren Guthrie
Written byKaren Guthrie
CountryUK

On screen

Karen Guthrie
Ann Guthrie
Ian Guthrie