“But the ultimate power of Another End is the way the film allows us to reconnect with our own memories and our dearly departed ones, and asks of its audience to rework and re-imagine our personal relationship with death.”

Those of us who have suddenly lost someone important to our lives will immediately relate to Piero Messina’s Another End. Or will we?

The film, part of this year’s Berlinale Competition lineup, tackles the idea of getting a few extra moments with a departed loved one. Starring a grown up and spellbinding Gael García Bernal as the devastated Sal, a man who lost his life partner Zoe in a car accident for which he blames himself, Messina’s film provides a solution — albeit a sci-fi one — to a very human dilemma. Sal’s sister Ebe, played by Bérénice Bejo, works for a cult-like organization which, through new technology, promises to ease the pain of separation by briefly bringing back to life the consciousness of those who have passed on. Using a ‘host’, a live body which is programmed with the memories and habits of the departed one, they provide the bereaved with some more precious moments during which they can say their goodbyes for good.

It is during this experiment of sorts that Sal meets Ava, played by Norwegian actress Renate Reinsve — who is in two Competition films at this year’s Berlinale. Ava is the host designated to take over Zoe’s memories. Even Zoe’s parents have to play along with this charade, though the family dog wants no part of this new body, while Sal and the family try to adjust to the idea. The twist is that the host also has no idea of what is happening, while in the active part of the experiment. They fall asleep and wake up as their counterparts, only to go ‘dead’ again at the end of the day, and begin once more the following day. It turns out that only two memory-implanted hosts can recognize each other as the original departed ones, as is explained, but the host must not know what is happening or their safety is compromised. If it sounds confusing, at times it is.

While the premise of Another End can sound a bit hocus-pocus as well as complicated — and when watching it on the big screen for a full two hours can also look unbelievable — what is wonderful about the film is that it makes one think, “What would I do if I was given that chance?” And even days after watching it, I’m still coming up with possibilities and revisiting relationships that would benefit from the extra time. We live in an age that questions the politically correct, the ethical aspect of everything — from how we should address our fellow human beings, using which pronouns, to who is able to make a decision involving a woman’s body and reproductive system. In this era, Another End asks a lot of questions and puts a lot of the burden of deciding the worth of the film on the audience’s ability to think for ourselves. A quality we are perhaps losing more and more, instead passing that responsibility to the media and our political leaders.

The film benefits from wonderful performances, which also lead us to a very unexpected ending; you will need to sit through the full credits to enjoy it. And while the script seems to have a few missing spaces, maybe due to those memories being lost if we’re to use the film’s story as a guideline, the cinematography by Fabrizio La Palombara and the use of sound and music by Bruno Falanga more than make up for that amnesia. But the ultimate power of Another End is the way the film allows us to reconnect with our own memories and our dearly departed ones, and asks of its audience to rework and re-imagine our personal relationship with death. Because while a person’s body may no longer be around us when they pass on, their soul, their habits and our memories of them always remain, changing form from solid to spirit but traveling with us nonetheless, forever by our sides.

Image copyright: Matteo Casilli / Indigo Film