The Company of Strangers: A Magical View On Aging and Real Lives

This 1990 docufiction feature opens like a movie about kids on a field trip - a jovial soundtrack plays while a bright yellow bus gallops through a lush forest somewhere in remote Canada. Even though Canada is never explicitly mentioned, we know this from the context of Cynthia Scott and the cast's lives. Scott is a Canadian filmmaker who focuses her stories on the real ones; not only that but she’s interested in Women’s lives. In The Company of Strangers, she uses all but one actress; the rest are all real senior women who have a story to tell, their own, hence the documentary aspect of the feature. The fiction part comes into play by Scott’s brilliant guidance and storyline. She has imagined a place and situation where these seven elder women are challenged and faced with mortality. So once the “magical” bus is deep into the forest, it breaks down and the picture that they have become stranded paints more clearly as the sun begins to go down. As the night becomes colder, all but two women decide to abandon the bus to find shelter elsewhere while the two others, stay behind to work on the bus.

After finding an abandoned house, they start working on the basics and most importantly, they work together, either in groups or pairs. It’s in these moments of finding food, making beds, and finding useful loot, where the film's heart lives. It feels like a therapy session begins between the elders; talking about their fears, happiness, regrets, loss, and death. It’s a truly touching and moving experience.    

Additionally, Scott's set construction is exceptional. By set construction, I don’t mean building a stage or set for the “actors” to develop, on the contrary. Scott provides such a free, vast, and never-ending landscape that intertwines with the theme of where does it all end, which direction are the elders heading, and whether will it be a happy or dreadful ending. There are short but great moments where the steady camera pans over the emptiness of the forest just as if the elders were looking at it; to the uncertain of what lies ahead. It also adds a layer to the dream-like feeling of the movie. It does feel like it at times; that the women got randomly trapped in this forest but with a purpose. For me, that purpose was to prepare themselves for the inevitable by talking about their past and deep-rooted personal feelings. Their time was not to go during this trip but it was a crucial moment in their late lives. This film gives me hints of “Waking Life” by Richard Linklater - mainly due to its dreamy atmosphere, to the opaque yet lively discussions and debates both films offer. However, unlike “Waking Life”, Scott’s film isn’t centered around one character or storyline but multiple that co-exist in the universe and for this short time, in the forest. There are moments where what appear to be real-life pictures of the elders feel like a storyboard - from infants to young adults. The film is not interested in the construction and footing of a single person but rather in the experience a whole demographic goes through at a specific point in time and what’s mind-boggling, is that everyone will experience it; in some way or another; in some form or another.

It’s funny because they say that eventually, senior people turn into kids. In The Company of Strangers, you can see that, in all its glory.