RHUM

When is the last time you saw an old lady talk about sex on screen, or go clothes shopping, or delight in ice-cream? Or talk about infidelity? Fun seems to be the domain of the young and the lithe. Rodicas is an injection of reality.

It is about two women in their 80s who live in Sydney. The documentary is shot like a bloopers reel, reinforcing the fact that these are parts of life that we don’t usually see: the outtakes of everyday life that are not grand events but paint a portrait of two interesting lives.

Rodica Grill moved from Romania to Uruguay seeking a democratic country. Then, when propaganda started appearing in Uruguay from Fidel Castro, she moved to Australia. She is usually a size 16 but delights in finding size 14 skirts that fit. She enjoys dancing, seeks clairvoyants who will tell her about her husband, and works as a translator.

Rodica Gruia emigrated from Romania to Germany and then to Australia. Gruia told a friend that she planned to move to Australia and he put her in contact with Grill. Grill met her at a station and they have been best friends ever since. Gruia is the more cynical of the two, thinks fortune telling is ‘haloimes’ (nonsense), supports Obama and gets angry at Fox news.

This documentary shows us that these women are more than their historical context and ability to tell us about Communism. These things are part of them, but they are not all that they are. Grill reminds herself:

“I don’t think I was as happy in my life as I’m now in my old age … Sometimes when I feel very happy, I say: ‘Rodica, you don’t have the right to be very happy.’”

And what happened to Gruia in Germany is one of the few things that she will not discuss. Everything else however, is fair game. They fight about politics, enjoy shopping, get drunk and talk about missing loved ones, can’t imagine death, and wonder about the mechanics of queer sex. None of this is contrived or engineered to titillate. Rodicas is simply two intelligent women who have lived a lot, in natural conversation with each other. It is something I wish we saw more often.

Directed by Alice Gruia

 4.5 Stars

Reviewed at Festival of German Films 

Find out more about Rodicas HERE