Roland Reber's Cabaret of Death

• Watchlist

What is life? Is it the yearning of a lover, the fear of growing old, the rebellious struggle for a dignified death or the hunt for the most clicks? Is it maybe just a show? ROLAND REBER'S CABARET OF DEATH paints a multi-layered picture of existence and puts the taboo subject of death back in line into the circle of life. In various storylines a ruined relationship crosses paths with an old man begging for euthanasia, a live show featuring candidates who are mercilessly sacrificed to the audience, a dancer who cannot escape ageing despite her self-optimization and a man with the mask who craves to be famous at all costs. And between all this, a corpse driver rolls his "clients" through a long corridor and shares his very personal and unaffected thoughts about life and death. "The film was once a stage play which I produced following my father's death. It was in 1984. Many viewers thought there wasn't anything like such an interactive entertainment show in which contestants would endure every humiliation for a few likes. Today these shows exist. 'The dignity of men is unimpeachable' - that is the central topic of the film for me, the respectful relation to yourself and to others. In life as well as in death. And it starts with language, inter alia. We treat words the same way we treat people. We are living in a social situation heated up by the media and it's about time that we find our way back to a real discourse so we can act better toward each other." (Roland Reber)