“Sterben”, interview with director Matthias Glasner

February 23, 2024

Matthias Glasner, director of Sterben: “it was my idea to make a film about life in a moment when the process of dying is going on”.

“Sterben”, interview with director Matthias Glasner Chiara Nicoletti

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Inspired by some events in his personal and family life, german director Matthias Glasner wrote and directed “Sterben – Dying“, screening at the 74th Berlinale in competition.

The film follows the members of a family composed by a father slowly dying from dementia, a mother dying from cancer and their two adult son and daughter. Tom is a conductor working on the composition giving the film its title and Ellen is struggling with alcoholism.

“It was my idea to make a film about life in a moment when the process of dying is going on” says Glasner as he’s portraying a family who hasn’t been a family for so long.

“Sterben“ was written and directed in a sort of stream of consciousness where both the director and the actors followed the flow as they were playing life itself in its unpredictability and chaos

Plot

Sterben - Dying follows the very individual members of the Lunies family, who haven’t been a family for a long time. Lissy (Corinna Harfouch) is quietly happy about her demented husband Gerd (Hans-Uwe Bauer) slowly wasting away in a home. But her new freedom is short-lived: Diabetes, cancer and kidney failure mean that she doesn't have much time left either. Son Tom (Lars Eidinger), a conductor in his early 40s, is working on a composition called ‘Dying’, while at the same time being made the surrogate father of his ex-girlfriend’s child. And Tom's sister Ellen (Lilith Stangenberg) starts an affair with the married Sebastian (Ronald Zehrfeld), with whom she shares a love for alcohol. As Death finally turns up on the doorstep, the estranged family members finally meet again.

Written by: Chiara Nicoletti

Guest

Matthias Glasner