Dying

Berlin, modern day: Tom Lunies (Eidinger) is rehearsing a new composition titled Sterben (“Dying”) written by his troubled, highly-strung best friend Bernard (Robert Gwisdeck) who’s questioning whether his work is valuable or completely worthless. Though romantically involved with his assistant Ronja (Saskia Rosendahl), Tom is about to become a father, of sorts; his ex-girlfriend Liv (Anna Bederke) has called on him co-parent the child she is expecting, even though it was fathered by another man.

Hamburg: Tom’s barely-together younger sister, Ellen (a hypnotic Lilith Stangenberg), a dental hygienist, begins a frenzied affair with a married new colleague (Ronald Zehrfeld) with whom she shares a passion for self-medication and hedonism.

Meanwhile, Tom’s ailing, sharp-tongued mother Lissy (Corinna Harfouch) is struggling to care for her husband, Gerd (Hans-Uwe Bauer), whose mental decline is wreaking havoc on their quiet lives. Where are the couple’s two adult children when they are needed most?

A masterpiece of shifting tonal registers, Glasner’s provocative, semi-autobiographical film boldly treads the thin line between drama, tragedy and black humour often within the same scene. Featuring pitch-perfect performances and some truly bravura sequences, DYING is an exceptionally emotional film that, in spite of its title, is all about living.