After his fall, Per Kirkeby can no longer paint as he used to. He is in a wheelchair and his vision is severely restricted. He can no longer see his own paintings and he only recognises his own wife by her voice. “It’s odd”, he says, “living here in this shadow world”. Director Anne Regitze Wivel is a friend of the family who had already made a film about the painter in 2000. Kirkeby and his wife agreed to let her film them over the course of a year. The resulting documentary is touching and melancholy, but also full of hope. Kirkeby gets help from friends and his wife, who leads him back to a full life. Kirkeby, born in 1938, begins to paint again. “Man Falling” is a story about more than just one individual catastrophe. This documentary is also about the existential significance of art.