The Final Member

Jonah Bekhor and Zach Math's 2012 documentary is about a museum in the Icelandic town of Husavik. For forty years Sigurdur Hjartarson has collected and displayed the reproductive organs of mammal species; the one specimen missing from the collection is human. The documentary follows two candidates. One is an elderly Icelandic seaman who has committed to donating after his death. The other is an American man who wants to donate while alive, and who has conditions of his own. The film does not make a joke of its subject. Hjartarson treating the collection as a scientific project, the donors' motivations and the limits of museum practice are all taken seriously. The humour comes from the situation itself rather than from mockery. Who it's for: those who like unusual portraits and documentaries about strange obsessions. Who it's not for: viewers who would be uncomfortable with the subject; the documentary shows the specimens and the medical procedures directly.