Carmen Cobos shows the consequences of Parkinson’s disease in ‘Together’

25/10/2019.- The Time of History section scheduled the feature-length documentary Together by Andalusian director Carmen Cobos on Friday, October 25. The film keeps tabs for one year on a group of patients with incurable diseases, on their partners, and on their neurologist, looking to understand how people deal with knowing that their disease is going to slowly kill them without any prospects of recovery.

Carmen Cobos presented the documentary with her husband and colleague Kees Rjininks, and said that “Not only am I the documentary’s director, I am also someone who’s been suffering since Kees was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.”

In the discussion following the screening at the Cervantes Theatre, the director explained that she came across the idea of ​​making this documentary after Kees was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. “We wanted to know how other couples were getting used to the situation.” Kees added that “we thought we could help ourselves as well as other couples.”

In order to cast Together’s protagonists, they talked with Kees neurologist: “We asked him if he could get us in touch with some of his patients.” The filmmakers said that they wrote them a letter “everyone replied” to. They subsequently did a casting because they knew exactly what they were looking for: “A younger couple; a deteriorated older couple; a stable couple, and so on.”

With this documentary, they both wanted to “make people become familiar with the disease, because it is very much unknown,” and according to them “it is not just a tremor, there is much more to it.”

Carmen Cobos and Kees Rijninks have attended Seminci before. The first time was when Carmen presided over the Time of History jury in 2010. Four years later, they presented the documentary Imperfect Harmony in this very section, and Nelsons Nº5 a year after that. In 2016, they returned to the Valladolid Film Festival with Daniele Gatti and Obertura para un director de orquesta. This time, they are attending because Carmen is a member of the Time of History section jury, and also to present Cat Stories and Together.