Palliativstation

“It’s not about giving life more days, it’s about giving days more life” is one of the ideas formulated by Cicely Saunders, the founder of palliative care. It flickers up during a presentation in Philipp Döring’s four-hour institutional observation while a carer instructs a new staff member. They are at the Franziskus hospital in Berlin. Döring documents a few months here between the start of the year and summer, accompanying doctors on their rounds and in consultations with relatives and listening in on the team’s internal exchanges, which don’t shy away from mentioning shortcomings. A safe space is created that follows its own rules, in which dialogues about life paths are taken up and reflected upon, progress is celebrated and approaching farewells entrusted to the necessary people. Palliativstation is thus also a film about language, which shifts between medical jargon and different dialects and is sometimes only able to be produced with technical help. Döring gets very close to death, but with it also to life. His film is weighty, impressive and yet never becomes crushing under the burden of fate. One thing quickly becomes clear: life only ends with the final heartbeat.