Pets, plants and a ‘coming-of-old-age’ story – what to see and watch this week
This curation of The Conversation UK’s arts and culture coverage was first published in our fortnightly newsletter, Something Good.
Hollywood still has an aversion to telling older women’s stories.
Research has found that older women are frequently relegated to supporting roles, or portrayed as grumpy, frumpy or senile. So when I saw the Brazilian film The Blue Trail at the Leeds Film Festival earlier this year, it felt like a breath of fresh air.
Tereza (Denise Weinberg) lives in a chilling near-future where a totalitarian regime forcibly removes anyone over 75, relocating them to remote colonies without consultation or consent. Faced with this looming threat of exclusion and invisibility as she turns 77, Tereza refuses to comply. Instead, she embarks on a surreal journey along the Amazon River to chase one final dream before she is “put out to pasture”. As she takes the steering wheel of a boat she has commandeered to engineer her escape, she also takes control of her life.
Throughout the film, Tereza proves younger people’s assumptions about her body wrong. When she is forced to wear an adult nappy she clearly doesn’t need, she uses it to kick-start her escape. When others assume she is ready to end her life quietly, she instead embarks on a surprising and thrilling new love affair. The Blue Trail affirms the joy and novelty that can be found at any age and offers a damning indictment of ageism across the world.
The Blue Trail is in select cinemas now and streaming on Prime Video.
Read more: The Blue Trail is a dystopian ‘coming-of-old-age’ gem
Pets and plants
I adopted a cat in January and already I can’t remember life without her. Cheddar naps on my lap while I work (when she’s not disturbing Zoom calls with her acrobatics) and snuggles up to watch films in the evening (Flow was a particular favourite). So I’m intrigued by Pets & Their People, an exhibition at Oxford’s Bodleian Library that asks big questions about our furry (or feathered) companions.
What motivates pet owners – and when did we begin turning wild animals into the “fur babies” of the family? Equally importantly, what’s in it for the animals? Were their wild ancestors lured in by the promise of a warm fire, perhaps in exchange for catching mice or guarding livestock? Or did they deliberately ingratiate themselves into our homes and affections, offering companionship, comfort and even therapy?
Philip Howell, a professor who researches animal-human relations, described the exhibition as “wonderful”. He left reflecting that being human may involve “looking at our pets and asking what separates us from them”.
Pets & their People is at the Bodleian Library in Oxford until September 27.
Read more: Pets & their People explores the long, strange history of human-animal companionship
The Garden Museum is something of an overlooked gem among London’s museums. Housed in a deconsecrated church in Lambeth, it’s a beautiful space that explores the history of flora and fauna and how they’ve shaped human society. The museum’s latest exhibition, Seeds of Exchange centres on a short-lived but fascinating collaboration between an English botanist and his Chinese counterparts. Together, they documented the plant life of Canton (modern-day Guangzhou) at a time when global trade, science and empire were becoming deeply intertwined. Our reviewer, botanist Max Carter-Brown, found it “fascinating”.
Seeds of Exchange: Canton and London in the 1700s is at the Garden Museum until May 10 2026.
Fashion and freedom
Another London exhibition, Queen Elizabeth II: Her Life in Style at The King’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace, marks the centenary of the late monarch’s birth with the largest display of her wardrobe ever mounted.
The result, says fashion expert Hannah Rumball-Croft, is “a masterclass in what the Royal Palaces do best: celebrating the British monarchy – its pomp, pageantry and performativity – through the medium of clothes”. It also underscores why Her Life in Style, rather than in fashion, is such an apt title.
Queen Elizabeth II: Her Life in Style is at The King’s Gallery until October 18.
Read more: Queen Elizabeth II: Her Life in Style – an unwavering sense of self expressed through fashion
Eighty years on from the second world war, what does freedom mean in Britain today? That question lies at the heart of Our Freedom: Then and Now, a superb photography exhibition currently touring the UK.
Our reviewer, photography professor Mark Rawlinson, appreciated the “alternative perspective” it offers to the idea that the nation is currently divided. He left the gallery struck by the many ways freedom is experienced and understood across the UK. Whether it’s a veteran in Wolverhampton or a student in Hartlepool, he found the cumulative effect of these reflections on freedom and community both fascinating and thought-provoking.
Our Freedom: Then and Now is on tour across the UK until October 30.
Read more: Our Freedom: Then and Now explores what freedom means to Brits, 80 years after the second world war