Frans Buyens's moving and inventive film is based on his own autobiographical novel, which deals in the most sensitive terms possible with the subject of euthanasia.
Social & External
The people behind it
Dora van der Groen
Mother
Senne Rouffaer
father
Koen De Bouw
brother
Mia Van Roy
nun
Upon being informed that he is fatally ill with cancer, Max, who works at a used car store, steals money which his boss has gained through illegal means. When fleeing from the scene of the crime Max crashes his car. He is pulled unconscious from the destroyed vehicle by a homely young woman, Emma, who lives alone on a farm where Max decides to stay in order to hide from the police and his boss.
Jimmy celebrates his 45th birthday at the beach house, inviting his close circle of friends to a weekend full of fun,excess, and concessions. Everything is interrupted by Jimmy's confession of wanting to end his life before the party is over.
Once called "Father Frank" for his efforts to rescue lives, Frank Pierce sees the ghosts of those he failed to save around every turn. He has tried everything he can to get fired, calling in sick, delaying taking calls where he might have to face one more victim he couldn't help, yet cannot quit the job on his own.
Polish actress Stanislawa Uminska is put on trial in 1920s Paris for shooting her dying fiancé, and the electrifying criminal case captivated the country with a tale of fame, passion, misery and murder.
Kurt Gerstein—a member of the Institute for Hygiene of the Waffen-SS—is appalled to discover that a poison gas he helped discover is being used to kill Jews. Driven by his conscience to alert the rest of the world, Gerstein teams up with a young Jesuit priest, Riccardo Fontana, but their protestations fall on deaf ears in the Vatican.
Despondent over a painful estrangement from his daughter, trainer Frankie Dunn isn't prepared for boxer Maggie Fitzgerald to enter his life. But Maggie's determined to go pro and to convince Dunn and his cohort to help her.
Ramón Sampedro is a ship mechanic and part-time poet left a quadriplegic following a diving accident. Ramón fought for 30 years for the legal right to end his own life. He develops close relationships with his long-term lawyer Julia and his friend Rosa, who tries to convince him that his life is worth living. Despite his situation, Ramón manages to inspire those around him to live life to the fullest.
Helene Alving leads an outwardly contented life. On the eve of the 10th anniversary of her husband's death, she is about to open an orphanage as a memorial to him. To mark this occasion, her bohemian painter son Oswald has returned from Paris. Helene plans to take the opportunity to tell Oswald the truth about his father. But ghosts of the past erupt during an eventful evening, bringing the facade of civilised family life crashing down.
Daria, a young woman with borderline personality disorder, tries to end her life through psychiatric euthanasia, but her request is rejected as it is not something recognized or legalized in Chile. Looking for an alternative way, she meets Carmen, a woman who is part of an organization that assists suicides.
Thailand, 2030 — In an era where the government has legalized euthanasia through the organization ITB (In The Blink), Doc, a middle-aged “Negotiator,” is tasked with screening and evaluating those who request to end their lives for valid and justified reasons. But when a radical youth movement demands the legal age for euthanasia to be lowered — sparking debates over whether life’s achievements should come early, or even matter at all — tensions erupt and spiral into a crisis Doc and the organization could never have foreseen.
When John Halder's latest novel is enlisted by powerful political figures in the Nazi party to push their agenda, his career and social standing instantly advance. But after learning of the Reich's horrific plans for the future and the devastating effects they will have on people close to him, John must decide whether or not to take a stand and risk losing everything.
In this film, the wife of a renowned doctor becomes ill with multiple sclerosis. Trying to spare her beloved husband the ordeal, the woman turns to a family friend, Dr. Lang, to help end her life. When this doctor declines to help with the assisted suicide, however, she is forced to turn to her husband. After much soul-searching, Dr. Heyt, her husband, assists in her suicide. The act, however, is witnessed by a chambermaid, who reports him to the police. Dr. Heyt is put on trial for murder and, at first, Dr. Lang testifies against him in court. Soon, however, Dr. Lang is faced with a similar case in his professional practice and this, along with Dr. Heyt’s impassioned performance in court, convinces Dr. Lang that, in some instances, mercy killing may be the right thing to do.
Euthanizer tells the story of a mechanic who euthanises sick and old pets as a side job. Despite the grim work, he has a soft spot for the animals. Trouble stirs when the owner of a dog he was supposed to end realises that the canine is still alive. The only innocent party in the drama that ensues is the dog itself.
A man kills his terminally ill wife to prevent her further suffering.
An attorney comes out of retirement to defend a prominent doctor, who has been accused of the mercy killing of his wife.
Rex is a loner, and when he's told he doesn't have long to live, he embarks on an epic drive through the Australian outback from Broken Hill to Darwin to die on his own terms; but his journey reveals to him that before you can end your life, you have to live it, and to live it, you've got to share it.
At 92 years old, Madeleine decides to set the date and conditions of her death. By telling her daughter Diane and her son Pierre, she hopes to prepare them as gently as possible but it comes as a shock, and their minds are set ablaze. Until the end, Madeleine will keep her dignity, wits, and passion for life as a course of conduct, so she can give them all, and in particular Diane, a touching “final lesson”.
The oddball owner of an assisted suicide center and her hapless assistant have ten days to increase client numbers or face closure by the strict Euthanasia Licensing Board.
The chance meeting of two people at the darkest moments of their lives leads to a bright new beginning : Arthur (around 50) and Claire (around 30) pull each other from the abyss – by trying to save the other they see the worth of their own life.
Chris is a dancer dying of AIDS. He has chosen euthanasia to end his suffering. With the assistance of his lover Val and his doctor, he surrounds himself in his last hours with everything that made his life special and creates his ultimate work of art by choreographing his own death.
A poor, struggling South Carolinian mother and daughter face painful choices with their resolve and pride. Bone, the eldest daughter, and Anney her tired mother, grow both closer and farther apart: Anney sees Glen as her last chance.
When seventeen-year-old Hannah stumbles upon a website about Thinspiration--an online community devoted to anorexia as a life choice--she becomes an obsessive follower of the site founder, ButterflyAna. By the time Hannah's family realizes what is happening and get Hannah the help she needs, the disease has fully taken hold and Hannah is refusing to eat. Will this family be able to exorcise the demon of anorexia from their lives?
In New York City, a young girl is caught in the middle of her parents' bitter custody battle.
In a suburban landscape, the lives of several families interlace with loss, despair and personal crisis. Esther Gold has lost focus on all but caring for her comatose son, Paul, and neglects her daughter and husband. Lawyer Jim Train is devoted to his career, not his family. Helen Christianson wants to find a new spark in life, while Annette Jennings tries to rebuild hers.
When lapsed Jew and former cardiologist Harry suddenly decides to spend his retirement as a pig farmer in Nazareth, Israel, the move deeply shocks his family and his new neighbours. Back in New York, Harry’s ex-wife Monica is trying to manage the lives of their adult children, Annabelle and David, as well as her own.
The relationship of a couple who meet by chance in New York City is put to the test when they encounter a life or death circumstance.
94-year-old Eleanor Morgenstein tries to rebuild her life after the death of her best friend. As a result, she moves back to New York City after living in Florida for decades.
Louis Menkins is five weeks away from being released after 26 years in prison. He is faced with the decision to put his own release at risk in order to protect a young man named Beecher from growing gang controversies.
Following the death of his wife, a young father's hold on reality crumbles, and a strange presence begins to stalk him from the shadowy recesses of the apartment he shares with his two young sons.
An odyssey through time and memory, centered on a place in New Jersey where—from wilderness, and then, later, from a home—love, loss, struggle, hope and legacy play out between couples and families over generations.
A terminally ill mother invites her family to their country house for one final gathering, but tensions quickly boil over between her two daughters.
A young man with a bright future suffers a near-fatal accident and recreates his new life with the help of an unlikely animal friend.
An assistant prosecutor zealously pursues a conviction in the case of a pediatric nurse accused of murdering her patients, but doubt arises when her evidence shows that the infants may have died of natural causes.
Based on the true story of a black girl who was born to two white Afrikaner parents in South Africa during the apartheid era.
Years after her son's suicide, a woman longs to confront both the past and a friend of his who took his business idea.
A jazz musician seeks refuge from a lynch mob on a remote island, where he meets a hostile game warden and the young object of his attentions.
Thomas Montgomery, a married father of two young daughters, gets seduced by the world of online gambling and chat rooms where a virtual romance and sexual obsession ultimately leads to the murder of an innocent man.
A pair of twin brothers from East L.A. choose to live their lives differently and end up on opposite sides of the law.
In order to be reinstated to the bar and recover custody of her daughter, a hotshot lawyer, now in recovery and on probation, must take on the appeal of a woman wrongfully convicted of murder.
