‘The Room Next Door’ by Pedro Almodóvar and Sigrid Nunez

In this adaptation of Sigrid Nunez’s book, ‘What Are You Going Through’ (2020), two estranged friends, Ingrid, a successful author preoccupied with her fear of death and Martha, who is terminally ill with cancer, reconnect at the hospital where Martha receives treatment. As the women reignite their friendship, they share stories, secrets, regrets and fears from the last decades of their lives all while reflecting on their own mortality. The two become inseparable, even though at times Ingrid grapples with feelings of inadequacy, doubting how qualified she is to help her dying friend end her life meaningfully. As their friendship evolves and Martha’s trust in Ingrid deepens, she decides to ask her for a favour. Wanting to die on her own terms and without 'mortifying anguish,' Martha asks Ingrid if she will accompany her to an Airbnb where she will ingest a euthanasia pill she procured from the dark web. Putting her own insecurities about death aside, Ingrid agrees and the two retreat to a cabin in the woods where they confront the end-of-life hand in hand. After Martha’s death, Ingrid becomes the focus of a police investigation on Martha’s suicide as the two had anticipated she might.

Feature films frequently dramatize moral dilemmas through stylized aesthetics—lighting, editing, sound and The Room Next Door offers a compelling example in this regard: its saturated colours—deep reds, soft blues, winter whites—and intimate chamber-drama staging transforms the domestic interior into a space of moral clarity. Within this enclosed world, death unfolds through stillness and dialogue, reframing assisted dying as a deliberate, relational, and dignified act. The restrained sound design—marked by silences, ambient natural sounds such as snowfall and birdsong, and the unhurried rhythm of speech—amplifies the film’s contemplative tone. Viewers, and potentially lawmakers, are invited into an idealised and privileged environment, where the complexity of the choice to die is aesthetically contained and emotionally distilled. 

The film frames Martha’s decision to die as an act of self-determination, and portrays Ingrid as an honourable and moral friend who defends Martha’s right to a dignified death. It thus frames assisted death positively, and so too have its star Tilda Swinton and director Pedro Almodóvar advocated for the legalization of assisted death amidst debates in 2024 and 2025 in the state of New York (where the film is set) where assisted death could soon be legalized by the passing of Senate Bill S138. Praised for its successful cinematic adaption of Sigrid Nunez’s novel, ‘The Room Next Door’ has won three awards at the 2024 Goya Awards, the Golden Lion for best picture at the Venice Film Festival and was nominated at the 2024 European Film Awards. Though many have applauded Almodóvar for his delicate treatment of a sensitive topic, others, such as the Christian ministry ‘Focus on The Family,’ find the film “emotionally manipulative,” and that it casts assisted death in too positive a light, without addressing potential medical and ethical concerns. Coming from the Spanish context, on the other hand, where assisted death is legal, Almodóvar has explained that he believes very strongly that 'a human being should be the owner of their own life, just like they should be the owner of their own death'. This film about a friendship between two women each confronting death in her own very different way, has added to current conversations about the legislation of assisted dying in the United States and beyond.