IDFA World Premiere ‘Much Ado About Dying’ Tells Moving, Unexpectedly Funny Story Of Old Man’s Final Act: “Life Is Worth Living, When You’re Mirth Giving”

14.11.2022 - 17:07 / deadline.com

One of the biggest hits emerging at IDFA pulls off a remarkable feat: a story of an elderly man’s farewell that manages to be simultaneously touching, endearing and often riotously funny.

That sounds unlikely, if not impossible, and would be were it not for the protagonist of Much Ado About Dying – the vivacious and vexatious David Newlyn Gale. As death approached, rather more slowly than his nearest relatives expected, “Uncle David” was cared for by his nephew Simon Chambers, who filmed, wrote and directed the documentary. A good deal of the humor results from the interplay between uncle and nephew, who exasperate each other and “lovingly bicker” – if one can put it that way.

Within the first five minutes of the film, Chambers has noted in voiceover about his aging uncle, “Once I’d had to rescue him from a wardrobe when he got stuck in there looking for some socks.” He adds, “I’d spent my whole life getting him out of various scrapes.”

Chambers had relocated to Delhi, India to work on a documentary when he began to get phone calls from his uncle back home in the U.K., who complained about his deteriorating condition. “I think I may be dying,” David said in one call. Another time he declared, “I can’t go on like this… That’s why I’m in crisis.”

Chambers reluctantly suspended his work in India to return home to Britain to care for his uncle, who turned out to be in no immediate danger of kicking the bucket. David proves surprisingly resilient, and even jolly and joyful, despite living in something approaching squalor in a flat. He has smeared mint toothpaste around electrical outlets and other spots in a measure he deems efficacious to repel rodents. Heaters scorch the walls and threaten to immolate a rat’s trap of