Familiar Touch (12A)

Name: Familiar Touch (12A) — Kathleen Chalfant stars in this coming-of-old-age film following an older woman's transition into assisted living.
Start: 2026-08-06T15:25:00+01:00
Location: HOME

Kathleen Chalfant stars in this coming-of-old-age film following an older woman's transition into assisted living.

Fri 31 Jul - Thu 6 Aug

Drama
Cinema

Past event

Fri 31 Jul

Thu 6 Aug

Past event

Fri 31 Jul

18:00Past event
Sat 1 Aug

13:35Past event CAP
Sun 2 Aug

16:10Past event
Mon 3 Aug

20:40Past event CAP
Tue 4 Aug

15:55Past event CAP, Relaxed
Wed 5 Aug

18:20Past event
Thu 6 Aug

15:25Past event

Plus/ All screenings of Familiar Touch will be preceded by Call of the Cranes – a short film by Vilma Tihilä.

Presented in partnership with Bulldog Film Distribution and Women Over Fifty Film Festival.

A retired cook, Ruth (stage and screen veteran Kathleen Chalfant) prepares breakfast in her kitchen. It’s a dish she’s made many times before, but puzzling errors now punctuate her routine.

When her son arrives, she mistakes him for a suitor, and their “date” takes them to an assisted living facility, where Ruth feels certain she does not belong.

As Ruth slowly begins to accept the warmth and support of care workers Vanessa and Brian, she finds new ways to ground herself in her body, even as her mind embarks on a journey all its own.

Writer-director Sarah Friedland’s exquisitely precise and humane “coming-of-old-age” debut compassionately follows the winding path of Ruth’s shifting memories and desires. Shot on location at a retirement community in California, with some residents participating in making and/or performing in the film, Familiar Touch is a humane, unsentimental and searching film that eschews the narrative and stylistic tropes of many dementia stories, instead prioritising Ruth’s perspective throughout.