The Farewell Party 2014

The Farewell Party | Mita Tova | Am Ende ein Fest

The Farewell Party-Mita Tova-Am Ende ein Fest

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About The Farewell Party 💬

• Life is most beautiful at sunset.

Yehezkel (Ze'ev Revach), 72, lives in a retirement home in Jerusalem with his wife Levana (Levana Finkelstein). Yehezkel is the resident inventor, always coming up with new original ways of making everyone's life a little easier (such as a vibrating mouse for a Parkinson patient). When his best friend Max (Idit Teperson), who is suffering from a terminal illness, asks Yehezkel to help him end his life, he feels compelled to help his friend die in peace. Together with a retired veterinarian - who brings the tranquilizers, and a former police detective to clean up the evidence, he tries to figure out the best way to put Max to rest. The thing is no one in the group can bring themselves to actually kill Max, so Yehezkel invents (constructs?) a ''Euthanasia Machine'' that allows Max to press the button himself, and fulfill his own wish to die with dignity.

Levana, Yehezkel's wife, does everything she can to stop them, but Yehezkel goes behind her back, and together the group of friends helps Max end his suffering. When Levana, who suffers from early-stage Alzheimer's, realizes what they've done she calls them all murderers, and wants nothing to do with them.

Meanwhile, word of the ''Euthanasia Machine'' begins to leak out, and old people from all over Jerusalem flock to the retirement home looking for a way to end the suffering of their loved ones. They beg Yehezkel and his friends to help them. The group resists at first, but finally, they find themselves in the Euthanasia business, traveling all over the country, granting people their last wish to die in peace, often in some bizarre settings.

Yehezkel is so distracted by all this; he refuses to realize that Levana's condition is deteriorating. Levana realizes she's one step away from not knowing her own granddaughter. She begins to understand that she may have misjudged her friends, and asks them to help her end her life before it is too late. Now Yehezkel is faced with an impossible dilemma, does he let his wife go peacefully, as he has done for so many others, or hold on to her life against her will.

• DIRECTOR'S NOTES

''For against your will you are formed, against your will you are born, against your will you live'', (Ethics of the Fathers chapter 4). Can you at least determine when to die?

THE FAREWELL PARTY deals with separation. Separation from someone you love, separation from yourself - when the mind begins to fail, and the separation from life and the right to choose how it all ends.

The main characters are senior citizens, in a retirement community in Jerusalem, people who have retired from their life's work - these types of people are not usually heroes of movies. But out of that very place of retirement and inactivity, they decide to gain control over their fate. As in any tragedy where the protagonist tries to change his destiny and of those surrounding him, there is an unbearable price to pay.

THE FAREWELL PARTY is also a film about love and friendship. Our five main characters find comfort, strength and hope in each other in the difficult and funniest moments of life.

The plot is not autobiographical, but is based on personal experiences accumulated while caring for a 'Helga'; someone close to us, towards the end of their life. In our process of saying goodbye to a loved one, we discovered that when the body fails and the mind remains lucid, self-irony and humor remain the best way to cope with the prospect of death.

In our films, we try to deal with contemporary social issues, which are often controversial. We try to break the emotional drama with absurd and comic elements. We do so also by casting comedians, and in the case of this film some of the icons of Israeli comedy, in dramatic roles. We feel this makes this difficult and important issue more accessible to our audience, and hopefully, as in life, they will laugh as they wipe away their tears.

Sharon Maymon and Tal Granit

The Farewell Party Movie Details 🎥

Directed by

Sharon Maymon

Tal Granit

Writing Credits

Sharon Maymon

Tal Granit

Starring

Ze'ev Revach

Levana Finkelstein

Aliza Rosen

Ilan Dar

Raffi Tavor

Ruth Geller

Hilla Sarjon

Idit Teperson

Yosef Carmon

Hanna Rieber

Music by

Avi Belleli

Cinematography by

Tobias Hochstein

Genres: Comedy, Drama, Romance

Countries: Israel, Germany

The Farewell Party Official Trailer

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