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The Mirror and the Window
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The Mirror and the Window
IDFA 2021

The Mirror and the Window

Diego Gutiérrez
Netherlands
2021
93 min
World Premiere
Festival history

Filmmaker Diego Gutiérrez knows that he is soon to lose two loved ones: his mother Gina Coppe and his best friend Danniel Danniel. Both ask him to film them during this final phase of their lives—Gina in her apartment in Mexico City, Danniel in a Dutch restaurant where he feels at home. What stories do they want to leave behind?

As a filmmaker, Danniel knows that you have to give the viewer a denouement: he holds a photo of a young child up to the camera at the beginning of his story and reveals at the end why it is crucial to him. Gina brings up the love of her life—and it isn’t Diego’s father.

Gutiérrez visualizes the journey they are each taking as a voyage to Antarctica, the continent without a trace of human intervention that can only be reached via stormy seas. Along this journey, the director observes, “I have the feeling that I’m filming two burning candles, and they’re asking me to go on filming them even when the flame stops burning.”

Nominated for the IDFA Award for Best Dutch Documentary

Credits
Director
Co-production
    Daniela Alatorre for No Ficción
    Daniela Alatorre for No Ficción
Executive producer
Involved TV Channel
    Human
    Human
World Sales
    DOXY
    DOXY
Distribution for the Netherlands
    Mokum Filmdistributie
    Mokum Filmdistributie
Screening copy
    DOXY
    DOXY

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