They Will Be Dust

Claudia is diagnosed with a brain tumour and there is no treatment. She makes her decision: she will go to Switzerland and end her life. Her husband Flavio has to accept it but will not let her go alone; they will go together. Their daughters object. The family makes the journey together and everything that has to be said gets said along the way. The film does not give this straight: at certain moments the characters sing and dance. Carlos Marques-Marcet directs. Ángela Molina plays Claudia and Alfredo Castro plays Flavio. The film won the main award at the San Sebastián Film Festival. The form is unusual: musical sections enter between the dramatic scenes and what cannot be said is said there. The matter it treats is assisted dying; the narrative gives it not as a debate but as a decision a family has to carry. Ángela Molina is among the best known actors in Spanish cinema and the part rests largely on her. Marques-Marcet had made films following relationships over long stretches before, and this belongs to that line. Its hardest section is the daughters' reaction; the narrative does not put them in the wrong. Who it is for: viewers who like bold formal choices and Spanish cinema. Who it is not for: the subject is extremely heavy, the musical sections will not suit everyone, and the ending is open.