Posts Tagged ‘Death’

2m2 (2026) Rotterdam Film Festival 2026

Dir: Volkan Uce | Turkey, Belgium Doc 83′

“The Angel of Death is on vacation” complains a mortuary attendant in an early scene of this darkly humorous Turkish film, a third outing for documentarian Volkan Uce, screening at this year’s Rotterdam Film Festival.

From preparing bodies to packaging them in coffins for transportation, we learn a great deal about the funeral business Muslim-style, all from a man who is trying to make money from death while respecting his clients’ dignity.

Ten years ago Tayfun Arslan’o set up ‘Hizir Funerals’ to serve Belgium’s Turkish Muslim community and his enthusiasm is a delight to behold. When not dealing with postmortem paraphernalia, we see him comforting grief-stricken wives or sympathetically explaining death to a bereaved young client, or even selling coffins in bulk.

In the evening he relaxes by reading and playing monopoly with his daughters: he’s busily recruiting them for his lucrative business model – when the Grim Reaper comes calling Tayfun charges 3-4000 euros a pop for providing a decent farewell, and there are 400,000 Muslims in Belgium: Just do the Maths.

At a ‘death’ trade fair, Tayfun gleefully peruses the stands to discover the many different kinds of coffins and hearses on display, but also there are weird accessories for sale, such as ‘in coffin’ pads that absorb the dead baby’s smell, intended for grieving mothers.

When crowds gather on the eve of an Eid celebration, Tayfun is there handing out water and promoting his biz to the faithful. There is also transportation to consider – if you or your loved one dies and wants to be repatriated to Turkey  Tayfun has an onsite liaison counterpart. His energy is impressive and he comforts and assures the clients while calmly trousering their money. Death is a captive market, a miserable business and clients are usually too distraught and emotional to bargain or strike a deal as they are led to the slaughter, money-wise.

Back in Turkey, Tayfun dedicates a quiet moment to lay flowers at the cemetery where his extended family rest in peace. His tears are shed for the first time when he explains his obligation to go back to Belgium for the sake of his kids. Tayfun is not only there on a fact finding mission, he uses the trip back home to network with business associates; one is offering air-conditioned coffins for repatriation, another complains that the centralised system of channelling bodies through to a main mortuary for processing is wreaking havoc with his more personal one to one approach. To help him out Tayfun offers him facebook friendship.

Bizarrely, 2m² is both droll and faintly amusing, full of fascinating discoveries without overloading the detail. And there’s a surprise in store in the finale.

2m² part of the BIG SCREEN COMPETITION at IFFR Rotterdam | Feb 1st, 16:50 / 5:50pm CET

Dead Good (2018) ***

Dir: Rehana Rose | UK Doc

Death has lightened up according to a new documentary that aims to deal with the dark taboo surrounding our final exit. Dead Good visits a series of Brighton women who are now offering practical ways to process the aftermath of death in a surprisingly serene and filmic ‘made for TV’ style. Rose also helps lift the lid on the funeral director’s job showing how nowadays families and loved ones can be in charge, rather than feeling like captive mourners, left to flounder in a well of emotion.

Bamboozled and grieving after the death of a family member, the obvious thing is to rush to the nearest funeral parlour who will invariably offer an expensive and often exploitative procedure for dispatching your loved one. Then there’s the religious ceremony and all that involves. Not to mention the legal and civic requirements. But it’s’ not always been this way. In the past the corpse was often kept at home prior to the funeral, so loved ones had a chance to their come to terms with their grief and spend time with the physical body, often actually preparing it for burial, while coming to t terms with their emotional bereavement.

One of the ‘funeral specialists’ we meet is Cara who set up her practice 20 years ago after experiencing the traditional funeral sector and then training to be a freelance embalmer (the process is shown on a mock-up comic video). Not surprisingly, she found embalming invasive and unnecessary, and only vital if the body is being transported great distances. But her intention to empower, rather than take over in this most private of affairs, is what gave her to idea to start her business. And ‘empowerment is the watchword of the other specialists who appear.  On the religious side, we also meet quirky parish priest Peter, who may have been the inspiration for the Sophie Waller Bridge’s vicar in the TV comedy Fleabag – although Andrew Scott is infinitely more relatable.

There is no narrative structure as such, the film is here to inform and enlighten with statements such as “everyone can have a meaningful funeral that is affordable and personal”. Musical choices mostly feel intrusive and counterintuitive. Dead Good works best when it focuses on the practicalities of dealing with the post mortem process and the funeral options rather than on the personal stories which feel too personal, although thankfully Rose maintains an unsentimental and candid approach throughout. Dead Good also shows how nowadays individuals can fulfil the dead person’s preferences as to their ceremony, coffin etc. And here Cara points out that in most cultures death preparations have traditionally been, and still are women’s work – wouldn’t you know it!. MT

ON RELEASE NATIONWIDE FROM 10 May 2019.

 

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