Review by xah_rasul

So wrote Charles Bukowski, not knowing his words would end up selling Levis. That's another story. This story, Dreams of a Life, is a compelling and brilliant documentary. The performances are superb,particularly from Zawe Ashton and Alix Luka-Cain. The film stayed with me a long time after the curtains closed. All of the characters are so interesting that the film does give proof to the credo, 'you couldn't make it up'. Why would you need to with a story as powerful and bizarre and thought-provoking as this? Who are we? What are we? How do we come to be and equally, how to we come to be remembered. What is memory? What is re-memory? As well as these deep questions about the self the film also seeks to ask (without bitterness or blame) - how can this happen? What does it say about society that people can fall through the cracks and disappear? I highly recommend Dreams of a Life, it is a labour of love and this shows in the attention to detail it gives to the people and events that come together to tell this story with such power and such care.