Touching Infinity (2020)

Directed by: Griet Teck | 76 minutes | documentary

In ‘Touching Infinity’, director Griet Teck follows Rebecca, Delphine and Fernand during their last phase of life. All three realize all too well that they don’t have long to live. The question here is not so much whether death will come soon, but how they and the immediate environment deal with their death.
Despite the subject being quite intense, ‘Touching Infinity’ is remarkably loving and soothing. The film takes the viewer along in the life of the terminally ill mentioned above in a respectful way. It mainly shows the three during everyday moments, such as a chat over dinner and a bike ride with the family. Sometimes the camera pans away from it all and you see clouds pass by or hear birds chirping in someone’s yard. The film also looks at the way in which those close to them deal with the impending loss. This makes ‘Touching Infinity’ so intimate that you sometimes want to look away. Nevertheless, the film keeps your attention by emphasizing the love between these people. The film even cleverly circumvents sentimentality.

For her direction, Griet Teck opted for a minimal approach, as if she wanted to ignore herself for the sake of the subject: she filmed in natural light and often made use of a static camera set-up in which the ‘action’ mainly comes from conversations. As a result, the film offers little context at the same time and the viewer can lose track of where someone stands in the dying process. However, this is not annoyingly common. Moreover, ‘Touching Infinity’ is aesthetically more industrious than it first suggests. Teck occasionally films from odd and low points of view. For example, in some scenes, people are almost entirely shrouded in shadows. With this, Teck’s direction emphasizes the fragility and beauty of life. The director also takes a humble position with regard to the dying.

‘Touching Infinity’ is remarkably physical: there is a lot of cuddling and watching over each other in an unctuous way. Both the sick and the non-ill notice that every moment counts more. You hardly see any trace of heedlessness. Rebecca’s story, the younger of the three terminal patients, is most impressive. She is a mother of three young girls and has an incurable cancer in the abdomen. To her offspring and husband Bart she often speaks measuredly about the approaching death. The difficult conversations and the impotence that results from the confrontation with death are also not hidden from view by director Teck. The mourning will come, only you don’t know exactly how. This delicate film offers a sensitive insight into how that can happen, and is therefore perhaps a comfort to many.