‘Chronique d'une mort décidée’ by Vincent Fooij

Vincent Fooij’s film charts the final three week of former journalist and parliamentary aide, turned assisted dying activist, Jean-Marie Lorand’s life. The documentary is highly intimate, presenting the physical, mental and emotional suffering endured by Lorand, his preparations for his death (funeral arrangements, preparing a death notice, etc.) and the various reactions of friends and family members to his decision to have an (illegal) assisted death. As Lorand writes in ‘Ma dernière liberté’, the film is a means of raising awareness of the plight of those who cannot have the assisted death they so desire, and yet it is also a testament to the power of love and to the value of moments spent with loved ones right to the very end of life. Following Lorand’s wish, the documentary is a filmic testimony to his life, to his desire to die with dignity and to the need, as he saw it, to legislate for assisted dying in his country.

As the documentary was filmed during Lorand’s last three weeks of life, there are regular references to his plans for an assisted death, including how this would be achieved, acknowledging that, at the time of the film’s production, assisted dying was illegal in Belgium. Given Lorand’s profile as a well-known media personality, the film, which, just as his other texts, became synonymous with the life of its author and subject, was significant in parliamentary and social debate surrounding the introduction of euthanasia legislation in Belgium. The film makes regular reference to the legal, moral and ethical frameworks that, at the time, restricted assisted dying in the country and to Lorand’s appeals for a change in the legislation. Following his death, Jean-Marie Lorand became a symbol of the assisted dying lobby in Belgium, assuming a similar status to Vincent Humbert (France), Piergiorgio Welby (Italy) and Ramón Sampedro (Spain).