GoetheKino|GoetheCine
Director: Christian Zübert, colour, 95 min., 2013/14
A scene in which Hannes (36) is training on an exercise bike already foreshadows what is to come. He is not in the best condition. But he wants to get in shape for the bike tour, which he, his wife and their friends undertake every year. This time, it’s his turn to choose the destination. To everyone’s surprise, he chooses Belgium. The clique only finds out why when they’re already on the road. Hannes has the incurable nerve disease ALS, and feels that he has very little time left. He has already experienced the cruel course of the disease first-hand – his father died of it. Hannes thinks there’s only one solution – with the help of a doctor and euthanasia assistant, he wants to forestall the anticipated agony. German law forbids this. So he has made an appointment in Ostend, Belgium, where he is to receive the final injection.
Although it’s difficult for all of them, they try to have fun – for Hannes’s sake. They drink much more than their thirst requires, scuffle in the mud, pilfer the drugs of some young people so they can take them themselves. The story constantly fluctuates between fun and sorrow. Everyone wants Hannes to really enjoy his last few days – and through his suffering, they learn to value their own lives more. They all get closer to one another – the bickering couple Mareike and Dominik, as well as Hannes and Kiki, who complains, “You’re leaving me alone and you aren’t even dead yet!” For a few moments in between, everyone seems to have repressed the journey’s end, but the final moment finally has to come. Hannes, his wife, his mother and all the friends are forced to say their final farewells and the doctor gives the patient the lethal injection.
Director Christian Zübert and screenplay author Ariane Schröder don’t wiggle out of the story, but tell it to the very end. This is one of the nice qualities of this film, which competently balances comedy and tragedy. If need be, it never shies away from slapstick humour at the abyss, thereby putting any melodramatic tones into perspective. What on the surface looks like a film about suicide is at a deeper level a fairly clever work about freedom and life.
Back
