Früher oder Später

Jürg Neuenschwander

Sooner or later

The Swiss documentary filmmaker Jürg Neuenschwander touches a taboo: dying. sooner or later shows people, dying people, their fears, despair, pain and helplessness. And it shows the family member who accompany the dying in their last days, who are thus confronted with their own fears and helplessness.

The dying, who agreed to a camera team filming their death are no longer with us. They will not see the film. But they wanted other people to see it, to show publicly the face of dying and withering away. Neuenschwander shows us seven examples of dying, here in the Emmenthal and far away in Tibet.

An old woman dies alone; an old man gets married shortly before his death; a 40-year old man fights his cancer doggedly; a 16-year old, also terminally ill, suffers extreme physical changes, and - this also exists - a baby lives for just half an hour. sooner or later shows also the business of the funeral homes, the daily routine of the gravedigger, the work in the crematorium.

The film observes discreetly, but precisely and insistently. Sometimes it is close to the person, sometimes farther away. Respect for people is the leitmotiv of the film.

SOONER OR LATER the time comes. Sooner or later it happens to all of us. Sooner or later it gets you. Not only in religion, but also in literature and in the still young history of film making, it is omnipresent. Maybe even more than love, its so closely connected counterpart.

Death has fascinated at all times. Though feared, when it happened it was accepted. It was allowed to happen because it was most of the time fast and painless. Romeo takes poison, Carmen is stabbed, the Lady of the Camellias dies of consumption, but also in a timely manner. Intellectual history tells us many things, true things, about love. But we are told very little about death.

It doesn‘t tell us about dying, about the time before death. The «survivors», the mourners are noticed only after the death of a friend or family member. The time before death, the time of dying, of withering away remains out of focus. It does not exist from a dramatic point of view.

Feature films show death, the moment of death. The closing of the eyes, or the opening of the hand is the conventional way of showing the moment when death occurs. At the outside it may show the death throes while the dying utters important words. Or the soprano sings an especially beautiful aria.

Dying and Survivors

The documentary SOONER OR LATER is interested in the in the period that the intellectual history leaves out. It shows the human being before he/she dies, and the friends and family before their fellow human being leaves them behind.

Jürg Neuenschwander shows people like you and me, actual people in today‘s world. But they have reached the end of their lives, be they young, in their prime, old, or on their deathbed. Contrary to the heroes in novels or films, pathos is alien to them. In their last days and hours they falls silent and close their eyes. They die in silence and, only too often, they die alone.

«With the dying I started; with the bereaved I ended». This is how sooner or later begins. It is about both, those who will die and those who will stay behind. They both get a chance to speak, those who are still alive but know that they are dying and those who accompany them on these, their last days.

The people in the film agreed to be accompanied by a camera during their last days, as have their families. Five people, whose days were recorded in sooner or later, are now dead. They will not see the film. But they knew that other people would see it, and that is also what they wanted.

Emmenthal and Tibet

At the beginning, an old woman dies; at the end an old man dies; both, from so-called natural causes. Two other persons, a 16-year old adolescent and a 40-year old man are confronted with a cancer diagnosis. The teenager and his parents have one more year together; the man and his wife have six months. The twins, David and Noah were stillborn, and baby Levin lived only for a short time after his birth. Also in Tibet, the other world, a man dies, a husband and father.

They appear sometimes oddly alike these different and separate worlds: the idyllic cemetery, nestled in our familiar hilly landscape of the Emmenthal, and the trees with prayer flags at the last resting places on Tibet‘s arid plateaus.

In death, they are the same. In Tibet, the bodies are thrown into the river to feed the fish. In the Emmenthal they are buried six feet under, dust to dust. A ritual ceremony in far-way Asia, a mundane job for the funeral homes and gravediggers here.

Jürg Neuenschwander knows both worlds: his Emmenthal, where he grew up and where he shot the movie «The Power of Healing» about the local healers, as well as Tibet, where he travelled extensively and where the film SHIGATSE about the local medicine was developed.

In SOONER OR LATER , there is no room for doctors. When death is involved, they fade into the background. In our culture, family, friends, and the hospice nurse take their place; in Tibet, the monks take part in the grieving rituals and thus help the bereaved.

Pain and Emotions

SOONER OR LATER is a pure documentary. It observes, nothing else: precisely, intensively, directly. Jürg Neuenschwander does not stage anything, nor does he give any directions. He lets it happen.

But his film is always about the human being, his grief, his anger, his fear, and his helplessness; it is about the emotions of the dying and of the survivor. Philippe Cordey‘s camera moves carefully, discreetly. Sometimes it is close to the person, and then it moves away. Respect is its leitmotiv. David Gattiker‘s music respects the mood of the film. It is clear and transparent, and sometimes sounds as if wanting to express the silence. Regina Bärtschi‘s editing, even though not linear, takes its time, works with long, quiet sequences and concentrates on the essentials. She focuses on the human being, his feeling, his breathing, until the film becomes a painful, but also a liberating whole.

Death is spectacular in itself. The film shows this too. Death shakes us up and about. Everything else becomes unimportant. One cannot avoid the emotions when facing death. This happens also in sooner or later. The movie is upsetting; probably more than one would like to admit. There is no need for any artificial dramatic build-up - it happens all by itself.

Those who have ever lost a dear one, accompanied him, even if only from afar, on his journey through dying, will not be able to withdraw from sooner or later. The film forces us not to turn away, but to face death, grief, and pain, even other people‘s pain. But the film also allows us to take a look at the unpleasantness, the repressed truths. Sooner or later takes away the shame that would normally forbid us to take a closer look.

Internet

Add a comment.
Recent comments

EAN 7611372640010
Permalink