Exeter College Visiting Fellow publishes new film review in The Gerontologist

Dr Israel (Issi) Doron, Visiting Fellow at Exeter College, has published a new film review in The Gerontologist, examining the 2025 Argentine film 27 Nights. 

His review, titled 27 Nights: visualizing the gap between the “science of aging” and the “reality of aging”, explores how the film interrogates tensions between legal and medical understandings of ageing and the lived experiences of older individuals. The film is based on the real-life case of Natalia Cohan de Kohen, an 87-year-old Argentine artist who was involuntarily admitted to a neuropsychiatric clinic in Buenos Aires following a guardianship action brought by her daughters, supported by a preliminary diagnosis of frontotemporal dementia.  

After a legal challenge and the involvement of an independent expert, the court ultimately dismissed the case and ordered her release, finding no justification for her confinement. This case, as Doron notes, reflects broader patterns seen across legal and care systems, where older individuals may be placed under institutional control against their will. 

In the review, Dr Doron argues that 27 Nights offers a nuanced portrayal of one of gerontology’s central challenges: the gap between the complex realities of ageing and the categorical frameworks used by law and medicine. Through its depiction of Kohen’s independence and individuality, the film challenges simplified distinctions such as “capable” and “incapable,” highlighting how institutional language can reduce lived experience to diagnostic labels. 

Doron suggests that the film ultimately acts as a critique of how ageing is assessed and governed, raising wider questions about autonomy, identity, and the extent to which older adults can live according to their own wishes. 

Dr Doron is also a member of the Department of Gerontology at the University of Haifa. His research focuses on ageing, law, and social policy.