Tea Time

Maite Alberdi's 2014 Chilean documentary follows five women who have met regularly for sixty years. Former schoolmates, they gather monthly at one of their homes for a carefully prepared afternoon tea; the talk moves between gossip, illness, religion and death. The whole film takes place at that table. The camera is fixed and the setting does not change; the material was recorded several times across years, and when one of the chairs empties it is given in a single cut. Alberdi neither ridicules the women nor idealises them. Some of the talk carries prejudice and the film does not correct it; old age is shown here not as wisdom but as a personality continuing. Who it's for: those who like observational documentary and narratives about ageing. Who it's not for: viewers expecting event and development; the film stays around one table.