Entrancing audiences at the highly respected Discovery programme at the Toronto International Film Festival, Filippo Meneghetti’s Two of Us is a complex romantic drama about two women in a longterm relationship that has been largely hidden from view.
While ‘coming out’ stories are so often synonymous with ‘coming of age’ stories, director and co-writer Filippo Meneghetti offers an invigorating slant on lesbian love by focusing on two women who spend their later years living in the same apartment building.
While nothing on the surface suggests that Nina (Barbara Sukowa) and Madeleine (Martine Chevallier) are anything but sweet, old ladies finding companionship in their later years, the truth is, however, theirs is a passionate, decades-long love affair. Deciding to move to Rome, where they feel more at liberty to publicly display their relationship, Madeleine is faced with the challenge of revealing her sexuality to her daughter, Anne (Léa Drucker, also starring in Roxane at this year’s Festival), which triggers a sequence of events bringing the true meaning of love to the fore.
Rejecting the clichés that dominate love stories about older people, with Sukowa and Chevallier as his leads, Meneghetti places complex, believable characters in difficult situations, bestowing this film with depth and sophistication.
Two of Us is eye-opening and emotionally compelling, highlighting a universal truth: love is never easy but it is always worth fighting for.
Tuesday 14th July
100 min
M
Film Festival
