Minder dood dan de anderen

Frans Buyens's moving and inventive film is based on his own autobiographical novel, which deals in the most sensitive terms possible with the subject of euthanasia. In this case, of his own parents. Frans's brother is caught in a fire during a party, and dies from his burns. His parents, beautifully played by Dora van der Groen and Senne Rouffaer, never recover from the shock - the father almost literally languishes away from heartbreak, the mother contracts cancer. Both want to die at peace. It took years for Buyens to get his film off the ground, and the effort shows: it's a work of terrible, beautiful simplicity.