Exiles

1991, 16mm, colour. 40 mins.

Ruben House is a Jewish old people’s home. Sixty people live intimately, side by side. They measure their days by meal times where salt and sugar are passed reluctantly and pills are taken unwillingly; by keep fit classes and film shows; by Biblical quizzes whose answers are unknown, forgotten or irrelevant.

Exiles is a portrait of age and ageing, of exiles and returns, recollected at the end of long lives. Memories and routines are weaved together with formal restraint and quizzical affection. This is a moving and compelling portrait of what it is like to have lived and live long.

£10.00