Simon Chambers | 2022 | UK | Ireland | | 85’

When filmmaker Simon Chambers cuts short a shoot in India to tend to his dying uncle, he has no idea of the journey they’re about to embark on together. His octogenarian uncle, long-retired actor David Newlyn Gale, lives in an unsuitable flat, sustaining himself on soup, keeping himself warm with a small army of electric heaters and battling mice infestations with toothpaste. His greatest sources of nourishment are literature and theatre, and he sees in his nephew, who is also gay, a like-minded creative soul. Between the Shakespearean monologues, Much Ado About Dying presents an intimate, occasionally funny and ultimately moving portrait of a solitary life and a quietly critical assessment of the inadequate resources available in the UK for a rapidly ageing population.

£8.40 (£7.70, £5.90)