Dying

The very individual members of the Lunies family haven’t been a family for a long time. Lissy is quietly happy about her demented husband Gerd slowly wasting away in a home. However, diabetes, cancer and kidney failure mean that she doesn’t have much time left either. Son Tom, an orchestra conductor in his early 40s, is working on a composition called ‘Dying’, while being made the surrogate father of his ex-girlfriend’s child. Tom’s hedonistic sister Ellen meanwhile is a hot mess, drowning her sorrows at punk clubs and having an affair that’s clearly going nowhere. As Death finally turns up on the doorstep, the estranged family members finally meet again.

Dying unpicks the dynamics of what could be anyone’s family, illustrating that dysfunction may be lurking just beneath the surface. Dying is one thing, but Life is the real difficulty….