Euthanasia is a huge issue that brings to mind a myriad of complex questions: Is euthanasia morally and ethically acceptable and permissible in principle? Is it inhumane? How long should a terminally ill person be allowed to linger on in pain? Should a doctor get involved? And if he does step forward, should his licence be revoked? Should friends or relatives be prosecuted if they help someone die in dignity? Are the laws governing this matter antiquated and in urgent need of revision?
These burning issues are at the heart of The Farewell Party, an Israeli movie written and directed by Tal Granit and Sharon Maymon and screened at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival. Set in an upscale seniors home in Jerusalem, the film tackles such quandaries with verve and intelligence, coming down firmly on the side of assisted suicide.
Yehezkel (Ze’ev Revach) and Levana (Levana Finkelshtein), a couple in their 70s who love and respect each other after decades of marriage, seem reasonably content. But after Yehezkel agrees to euthanize Max, a fellow resident and old friend, by means of a “mercy killing” machine he’s invented, Levana accuses him and his accomplices of being murderers. Yehezkel doesn’t know it yet, but Levana’s harsh reaction is an implicit sign of her growing dementia.
Yehezkel, sensitively portrayed by Revach, has been dragooned into this situation by Max’s assertive wife, Yana (Aliza Rosen), who begs him to relieve Max of his agony. “He doesn’t deserve to live like this,” she says in anguish. Keeping him alive would be a crime, she adds.
Yehezkel and two friends, Dr. Daniel (Ilan Dar), a physician, and Raffi (Raffi Tavor), a veterinarian, work out the mechanical and medical procedures to send Max into the next world as painlessly and quickly as possible. Meanwhile, Levana’s descent into dementia accelerates. At first, she forgets words. Later, she pours salt instead of sugar into a cake mix, much to the sad puzzlement of her granddaughter.
With news of Max’s death having spread, another resident asks Yehezkel to perform the same procedure on his ailing wife. Against this backdrop, Levana, portrayed beautifully by Finkelshtein, sinks deeper into confusion. The tragedy is compounded by Levana’s acute realization of her rapidly deteriorating condition. “I’m disappearing,” she laments in a moment of crystalline clarity.
Levana’s “mental frailty” may have far-reaching implications in terms of whether she can continue to live in the retirement home, and this development greatly concerns Yehezkel.
The Farewell Party, ably directed by Granit and Maymon, deals with the moral and personal questions at hand with gravitas and levity. They highlight an issue that’s increasingly being debated and that needs to be addressed seriously by parliamentarians, doctors, lawyers and families whose loved ones have been laid low by a terminal disease.