The Room Next Door

A film by Pedro Almodóvar about euthanasia and friendship. Tilda Swinton plays a dying war journalist. Her friend (Julianne Moore) must be there when it all ends. By the author's standards, this is an extremely calm, even minimalist film, where the main theme is not love, as is usually the case with him, but friendship against the backdrop of impending death. "The Neighboring Room" is a film that contains nothing at all except for the fear of inevitable death and its miraculous overcoming. Not through stoicism or humor (which are almost absent in the film, atypical for Almodóvar), but through compassion and empathy. A bitter elegy about death transforms into a quiet ode to friendship. - Anton Dolin

Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.