A coming-of-(old)-age movie about Ruth, an 80-year-old woman with the onset of dementia who must move into a home.

“Familiar Touch” uses small details, such as sights and sounds, to capture Ruth’s increasingly confused groping for identity and points of recognition, as her world slowly but surely unravels. It's a low-key drama with great acting that neatly avoids clichés about aging. It is sad, tender and, in the middle of it all, sometimes comical. Just like life itself.

In her elegant feature debut, film artist and choreographer Sarah Friedland delivers a deceptively conventional study of an elderly woman’s transition to assisted living. Filmed at an actual care home, the attention to mundane detail and peripheral workplace dynamics are particularly resonant, anchoring and contextualising the character’s dementia-driven spiral.

Best Director, Best Actress and Best Debut Film Award from Orizzonti, Venice 2024.