THE ETERNAL MEMORY is a devastating documentary about a devastating disease.

It’s also a documentary about an abiding love, a true “in sickness and health” scenario.

Augusto and Paulina have been together and in love for 25 years. Eight years ago, their lives were forever changed by Augusto’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis. As one of Chile’s most prominent cultural commentators and television presenters, Augusto is no stranger to building an archive of memory.

He was responsible for reporting on the Pinochet regime and wrote a book of that period, chronicling the misdeeds and atrocities implemented by the dictatorship, a book of collective national memory.

His own memory now mutilated by this insidious disease, his sense of identity is somewhat maintained with the help of his beloved Paulina, whose own pre-eminence as a famous actress and Chilean Minister of Culture predicates her ceaselessly inventive manner of engaging with her husband.

Day by day, the couple face this challenge head-on, encountering good days and bad days, relying on the tender affection and sense of humour shared between them that remains. That sense of humour is a key component and a thrill to witness.

Less thrilling and quite chilling is Augusto’s desperation at not knowing his surroundings on a particularly bad day. Indicative of the pendulum swings, a centrifugal force fanned by fear and frustration, that inkling of awareness of his affliction diminishing his sense of self is distressing to sufferer and carer.

Yet through this ordeal, Paulina aspires to accentuate the positive. She is amazing.

Made by Maite Alberdi, who made the sensational, The Mole Agent a few years back, THE ETERNAL MEMORY has been Nominated for the Best Documentary Academy Award (2024).

THE ETERNAL MEMORY is Streaming exclusively on DocPlay from Feb 22, 2024. DocPlay streams a curated collection of the world’s most amazing and thought-provoking documentaries. Start streaming now on DocPlay: htttp://www.docplay.com