Pomm is a carer, not for her own relatives but, in a Thai residential home where Altzheimers sufferers from the West, who’s families can afford it, are given on e- to-one care around the clock. Contrast this with her own life where she cannot afford to live with her own children, the youngest being raised by her ex-partner, and the older two, from a previous partner, are being raised by her mother in another village. Her patient, Elisabeth is approaching the end of her life. Often Pomm will confide in her, just like she would like to with her own mother. She even calls her mom when they chat. She’s listens sympathetically to Pomm’s problem, then promptly forgets what she’s been told. But this throws into relief how Pomm is forced to be apart from her own mother, and her own children.
As time moves on, a new patient, Maya, arrives from Switzerland. The irony of the situation is not lost on Pomm. Her new clients’ families have the money to afford this level of care, and are struggling with the decision to fly their mother halfway around the world and leave her in Pomm’s care. She herself is also struggling with not being able to be with her own loved ones through her precarious economic situation.
With the ever increasing level of elderly care which our world faces, along with the economic hardships of people’s lives, this is a moving and relevant piece of film-making which presents moral dilemmas for us to make up our own minds about.
