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Watch anywhereFor 66 months, Nigel Fletcher slipped through the net of Britain's social care system, living in poverty on the streets of Oxford alongside Robbie, an alcoholic who became his only companion. Director James Bluemel filmed their complex, often abusive yet deeply felt relationship over six years. When social services finally intervene, the film weaves between Nigel's present institutional life and haunting flashbacks to his time in the wild.
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Invisible to the system, bound by an unlikely love in Oxford
66 months is a 2011 British documentary that takes an unflinching look at what happens when a vulnerable man falls through every gap in the social care system, and finds the only shelter available to him in a relationship that is equal parts damaging and devoted.
For five and a half years, Nigel Fletcher survived entirely off the radar of social services in Oxford, England. In the absence of any institutional support, he came to rely on Robbie Burns, an alcoholic who offered him companionship and shelter but also subjected him to physical and emotional abuse. The film alternates between Nigel's present-day life in a secure placement and a series of flashbacks to his years living with Robbie in poverty, set against the backdrop of Oxford's streets. It raises searching questions about social responsibility, mental illness, and the nature of dependency, while remaining, at its core, a deeply personal portrait of two people who could not be without each other.
James Bluemel spent six years filming Nigel's life in close proximity, building the trust necessary to document moments of raw vulnerability and rare tenderness. His observational approach keeps the camera within the cramped spaces the two men shared, making the viewer a witness rather than a judge. The film was produced by Moving Target Films in association with Dartmouth Films.
66 months earned official selections at some of the world's most prominent documentary festivals, including IDFA (the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam) and Sheffield Doc/Fest, the UK's largest documentary festival. It also screened at the Thessaloniki International Film Festival, the Open City International Film Festival, the Vilnius Documentary Film Festival, the REEL Recovery Film Festival, and Curzon Cinema Doc Days.
You can watch 66 months online on GuideDoc, the streaming platform dedicated to the best documentary films from around the world. Stream it directly from this page.
If 66 months moved you, these people documentaries on GuideDoc explore similarly intimate and socially charged human stories: Roger, My Brother, Seeing Through the Darkness, Traces of the Soul, and Half of the World.
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