Late Bloomers (Die Herbstzeitlosen)

80-year-old Martha manages to overcome her sorrow over her husband’s death when she starts living out a secret dream. She closes down the grocery store and instead opens a shop selling homemade lingerie. Since she is the mother of the town’s priest, this doesn’t look too good, and the local right-wing politician is up in arms. Especially when Martha and her retired friends become successful when they sew local motifs onto the underwear and sell it online. The opponents want to get rid of the shop before the town’s big choir festival, but Martha and her accomplices won’t give up without a fight.

In the style of Calendar Girls, the film is a charming comedy about older people who insist that there should also be some joie de vivre in the lives of pensioners. The outstanding actors have a wonderful twinkle in their eyes, and Bettina Oberli’s warmhearted feel-good film has been 2007’s biggest hit in Switzerland.

Copenhagen Film Festival Programme

*Screening with the short film, Farewell Packets of Ten. (Ken Wardrop / Ireland / 3 minutes) Two elderly women, Ethel and Nancy discuss their attempts at giving up the cigarettes, and the pros and cons of the dreaded weed.