Agatha's Almanac
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For six years, documentary filmmaker Amelie Atkins followed her very elderly aunt in the vegetable garden of her wooden family farmhouse in rural Manitoba. There, Agatha still lives as she did in the 1950s: from her own fruits and vegetables, with the seasons, without running water. Everything is manual labor. Planting, harvesting, cooking, storing, repairing. A way of life on the verge of extinction: in simplicity, self-evidence and self-reliance, connected to nature. Agatha uses seeds still descended from her mother's plants. "A life filled with joy, hope and love, but not always easy," the warped, practical Agatha laconically sums up her spartan existence.
Agatha lives solitary, but feels n...
For six years, documentary filmmaker Amelie Atkins followed her very elderly aunt in the vegetable garden of her wooden family farmhouse in rural Manitoba. There, Agatha still lives as she did in the 1950s: from her own fruits and vegetables, with the seasons, without running water. Everything is manual labor. Planting, harvesting, cooking, storing, repairing. A way of life on the verge of extinction: in simplicity, self-evidence and self-reliance, connected to nature. Agatha uses seeds still descended from her mother's plants. "A life filled with joy, hope and love, but not always easy," the warped, practical Agatha laconically sums up her spartan existence.
Agatha lives solitary, but doesn't feel lonely. And there is much to do on the land where she sows and harvests, from potatoes to strawberries and melons. Amidst lots of greenery, she likes to talk about it in her down-to-earth way, as well as the quilts she makes. She repairs clothespins, installs a pipe to conduct rainwater, tapes cracks in window frames with duct tape. Indoors, stickers and labels everywhere on boxes, jars and bags, because he who keeps something, has something. "Parsley," "silverware," "scarves," "socks," "negatives. Or a bill for when the film crew arrives: "I'm in the garden."
More sensitive matters - the death of a sister, admirers she where nothing in - intervene almost casually. Thus gradually grows not only a portrait of Agatha, but also of an almost forgotten lifestyle. She sees life as a privilege.
A documentary steeped in silence and sophisticated charm, it aesthetically showcases the romantic beauty of a simple life.