Winter Buoy

Right from the opening sequences of this chronicle of the relations between a couple of nurses and their pregnant drug-abusing patients, we plunge into the heart of events: impossible to trace back the origin of the cycle of pregnancies, placement of children, housing allocated then lost, couples destroyed by domestic violence then reunited, detox and relapses. The urgent needs are tackled first: rehousing Lynn in the middle of the Canadian winter or fetching her from a shelter where she lands up after going back to crack. Doris is nearing retirement and Talia describes herself as Doris’s disciple. They both embody, at either end of professional life, the enormity of a repetitive task that has no guarantee of success. Their empathy, bordering on a saintly calling (Doris refuses to hang up the phone when the fire alarm rings out), makes them the Sisyphuses of socio-medical care. Yet they put on no pained smile when pushing their rock uphill, probably because it keeps a human and therefore malleable form . In a freezing Toronto, their warmth encourages us to tune our ears to theirs. How far would our patience stretch? The fixed camera and the uninterrupted shots recreate the connection between social assistance and therapy: an alternation of sudden accelerations in emergencies and the almost leisurely drawn-out periods of shared activities. The discreet incursions into the nurses’ lives lift them out of their institutional role and suggest that the caring relationship is never a one-way affair. (Charlotte Garson)