Directors Andela and Davor Rostuhar are a married couple from Croatia who, after he proposed during a visit to Antarctica, decided to spend the first year of their marriage travelling around the world interviewing other couples about love. They must have packed some serious kit in their luggage, including a high-definition drone or two, because the resulting documentary is very polished for what was presumably a mostly two-person operation, beautifully shot by Davor and seamlessly edited together.
Apart from the pinprick-sharp drone shots, the film smoothly intercuts between interviews with all kinds of couples, the occasional single person, and a few three-person relationships, representing diversity on every possible axis. Effectively it’s a series of cinematic portraits, seemingly conducted in the interviewees’ homes: sometimes in a regular living room, sometimes a central Asian floor heaped with piles of blankets, and sometimes in the middle of a rainforest where an Indigenous pair discuss their domestic routines. There are two lesbian couples, one American and one in Iran; the latter adds a contemporary resonance given the current protests over women’s rights in that country. Some have kids, some don’t, and some have had to nurse children through long illnesses and watch them die, as is the case with a very lovable pair of older Americans. One woman recounts running away at the age of 12 so she wouldn’t have to enter into an arranged marriage with an older man with Aids; every angle is covered.
And yet, of course, viewers will understand the universal qualities of so many of the stories, particularly the descriptions of falling in love and trying to live harmoniously over the long term. In many ways, this is reminiscent of the humanist project that was at the heart of the travelling-exhibition-turned-book The Family of Man back in the 1950s, a collection of photographs curated by Edward Steichen from all over the world showing family life from, literally, birth to death. And as with The Family of Man, Love Around the World can sometimes feel a little Kumbaya-happy-clappy, but it’s sweet and well-meaning.
Read Also :
https://play.acast.com/s/6332a59ae42f280013b607d6
https://play.acast.com/s/6332b15440179e00127456c9
https://play.acast.com/s/6332bc23470c7900137cfac6
