The Oldest Person in the World
Sam Green / United States / 2026 / 87 min
A warm and subtle film about life, death and everything in between – which is quite a lot! Not least if you are one of the oldest people in the world, like those we meet in Sam Green's new film.
Imagine that there are people who have experienced the entire 20th century from start to finish. And that the record for the longest life is 122 years – an honour that belongs to Jeanne Calment. She is among the characters we meet in Sam Green’s deeply sympathetic film essay, which is dedicated to that very special club of people who have lived the longest – ever.
The only problem is that if you look up the Guinness Book of Records to find out who the world’s oldest person is at the moment, you rarely have to wait long before the title changes hands. Green visits them one after another, and has quite appropriately spent 10 years on his new film. Along the way, he himself gets to look both mortality and life itself deep in the eye. With humour, human warmth and a slight touch of melancholy, he has created a subtle film about the strange time we have on Earth.