‘Letzte Bilder: Sterbehilfe im Film’ – An Assisted Lab Film Series at Kinok St.Gallen
- Title ‘Letzte Bilder: Sterbehilfe im Film’ – An Assisted Lab Film Series at Kinok St.Gallen
- Year 2026
- Collaboration Kinok St.Gallen; Institute of Biomedical Ethics at the University of Zurich
- Author of entry Marc Keller
- Last updated 07.10.2026
Films do more than tell stories. They create meaning and shape cultural imaginaries that can become deeply embedded in collective memory. When engaging with a socially and ethically contested issue such as assisted dying, cinema demonstrates a particular strength: it makes abstract moral questions visible and tangible through individual lives and experiences. While illness, ageing, and death are universal, the circumstances in which they unfold are always unique. Films give these experiences faces and voices, drawing attention to their complexities and ambiguities. In doing so, they not only bring the topic to a wider public but also shape how societies think about assisted dying and how policymakers respond to it.
Letzte Bilder: Sterbehilfe im Film is a multi-month film series organised in collaboration between the Assisted Lab at the University of St. Gallen, the Institute of Biomedical Ethics at the University of Zurich, and Kinok. The series invites audiences to rediscover some of the most influential films on assisted dying. Each screening is followed by a discussion with invited experts, exploring what these films reveal, what they leave out, and the notions of dying, autonomy, and the good death they convey.
The programme includes:
7 October 2026, 7:45 pm
Mar adentro (Alejandro Amenábar, 2004)
3 November 2026, 8:00 pm
How to Die: Simon's Choice (Rowan Deacon, 2016)
9 December 2026, 8:00 pm
Amour (Michael Haneke, 2012)
13 January 2027, 8:00 pm
Die letzte Pointe (Rolf Lyssy, 2017)
3 February 2027, 8:00 pm
Plan 75 (Chie Hayakawa, 2022)
10 March 2027, 8:00 pm
The Room Next Door (Pedro Almodóvar, 2024)