Philipp Döring

Life only ends with the final heartbeat. The palliative care unit at Berlin’s Franziskus hospital. For one summer, Philipp Döring documents conversations driven by humanity, institutional bottlenecks and the light that streams in despite everything.

The film is set in Berlin in 1965. Τhe old woman welcomes the Commissioner at her doorstep with the words “I have been waiting for you for 30 years”. She has been maintaining for years the grave, where now by accident, this skull was found. The skull, has a rusty nail in it. In a long monologue, the woman confesses for the first time, her tragic life story.

All that is missing is one last signature and everyone wants to get this meeting over as quickly as possible - the mother, the new parents, the woman from the adoption office. But there is one unknown factor, and that's Mirko, the father of the baby who has never seen his child.

Marianne works for a crisis line night after night; no one is able to help all the lonesome people at the other end of the line no matter how hard she tries. But tonight she will have to face her own problems ...

Life only ends with the final heartbeat. The palliative care unit at Berlin’s Franziskus hospital. For one summer, Philipp Döring documents conversations driven by humanity, institutional bottlenecks and the light that streams in despite everything.

The film is set in Berlin in 1965. Τhe old woman welcomes the Commissioner at her doorstep with the words “I have been waiting for you for 30 years”. She has been maintaining for years the grave, where now by accident, this skull was found. The skull, has a rusty nail in it. In a long monologue, the woman confesses for the first time, her tragic life story.

All that is missing is one last signature and everyone wants to get this meeting over as quickly as possible - the mother, the new parents, the woman from the adoption office. But there is one unknown factor, and that's Mirko, the father of the baby who has never seen his child.

Marianne works for a crisis line night after night; no one is able to help all the lonesome people at the other end of the line no matter how hard she tries. But tonight she will have to face her own problems ...