Stories We Tell

Directed by Sarah Polley. Featuring Michael Polley, Harry Gulkin, Susy Buchan, John Buchan, Mark Polley, Joanna Polley. 108 mins

A director of emotional dramas that subtly defy the conventions of their genre, Sarah Polley used her features Away From Her and Take This Waltz to explore the mixed motives and illogical actions of restless, lonely hearts. Her attraction to this theme becomes obvious watching Stories We Tell, a documentary that confounds expectation.
Polley’s film begins as a portrait of her late mother; a complex woman with an insatiable appetite for life. But as Polley’s family share recollections and delve into the past, the demands of truth call for a complex form of storytelling.
The movie is a mixture of home videos, interviews and reconstructions filmed with a Super-8. These combine to evoke the dreamy, often contradictory nature of memory.
The effectiveness of Stories We Tell is largely reliant on the co-operation of Polley’s family. The intricacies of their relationships are revealed slowly, but there’s always a palpable sense of love, ribbing affection and protectiveness. Everyone has stories that they use like compasses to navigate life. Polley’s magnificent achievement is to show how many versions of these narratives there can be, and the endless ‘truths’ they lead to.