EVERYBODY'S OMA
Australia, 2022, 93 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Jason van Genderen.
What would we do without a quick reference to Google? Checking on Oma: What is oma Dutch? Grandmother, granny, grandma.
Director Jason van Genderen’s Oma is Hendrika, Nickname Puck, a migrant long since from Holland. In 93 minutes we get to know her quite well. In fact, this quite genial old lady, as the title indicates, represents everybody’s granny, grandma. But there is also the very serious side of this portrait, ageing, dementia, family response.
Many audiences watched 100 Days with Tata on Netflix, a very cheerful show with Spanish comedian-director, Miguel Angel Munox, having to care for his great grand aunt, into her 90s, especially during the several months of Covid lockdown in 2020. Miguel offered his time and loving attention for Tata, not without a great deal of stress, lockdown in rather confined spaces in an apartment, but devising ways of filming her, posting the films and creating an international sensation, fans galore, all over the world. But it ended at the end of the lockdown.
In fact, Jason van Genderen also began to film his mother during those same lockdown months, 2020. He and his nutritionist wife, Megan, and their children, had been very devoted to Oma but found, as she was growing older (and we see a number of the short films that Jason had made over the years to preserve the memories of his mother, his father, John and his final terminal illness), she could not live by herself and made a unit for her in their home. And, a delightful device, because of staying at home and not going shopping, they bought a whole lot of goods, set them up in the kitchen with a Coles sign, and took Oma shopping. And filmed it. And posted it. And, viewers all over the world, were eager to see more of Omar, to see how she was faring in lockdown, over the coming months.
But, of course, the dementia increased, Oma had a number of falls and injuries, more and more bewilderment, Jason and Megan having to take time off, constant supervision, constant help, cooking the meals, feeding Oma. This is a film about family devotion while not underestimating the toll that such constant care takes on son and daughter-in-law as well as the children. At times, in the social media clips, Jason seems to be ordering his mother around – which brings a deluge of critical comment, very hurtful. Going off air for some time.
The main impact of this documentary will be on sons and daughters, sharing the experience of Jason and Megan, the demands of constant care, visits to hospital, reluctant to go to respite care, but Oma’s age, physical condition, mental bewilderment, become almost too much. The couple have to make a serious decision about their ability and inability to care for Oma in her needs, and surrender her to more expert care (transferring some of her furniture and knickknacks to the respite care room before she arrives, and her feeling more at home).
With the discussions in Australia about the pressures on nurses, on those who work in aged care, the increasing burnout, the numbers leaving, this picture of care for Oma reminds us of how serious is the kind of care that the elderly need, the demands on the carers.
An observation. This reviewer is getting old and so watching a film like this, the decreasing of physical strength, the onset of dementia, is a challenge to appreciate – and be ready, perhaps – for one’s own physical and mental decline.
By the end of the film, with empathy for Oma and her decline, for Jason and Megan and their children and their caring commitment, we appreciate more and more the reality of ageing, dementia, and the need for care.
