The Many Sad Fates of Mr. Toledano

The work of British conceptual photographer Phil Toledano has won awards all over the world. He has taken portraits of celebrities including Mark Zuckerberg and Alec Baldwin, and shot countless magazine covers. This documentary follows him on a long-term project that sees the camera being turned on the photographer himself – his future self. Make-up artists and prosthetics allow him to turn the gloomiest visions of the future into reality. He “becomes” partially paralyzed following a stroke, a drunkard lying in the street, a lonely millionaire sitting at a table with his Chihuahua, and a vain man addicted to plastic surgery. The inspiration for this project was Toledano’s own father, whom he photographed deteriorating into senility. It made Toledano terrified of his own demise. He decided that the best approach would be an all-out confrontation with his own fear, so he immerses himself in unpleasant and dark visions of the future supplied by doctors and fortunetellers. Fellow artists shower him with praise, but his wife and his mother-in-law are less happy with the situation and share their fears with the camera. Will Phil’s gloomy visions of the future overshadow a far more positive reality?