Meanwhile on Earth

Carl Olsson (Patrimonium, GFF 2019) prepares us for the unavoidable, offering a backstage view of our final rest.

From the pathologists to the gravediggers, the hearse drivers and the embalmers, the funeral musicians and those who seem to have come to the point in life when they only wait for the time to come. We all face the same path, and through Carl Olsson’s contemplative perspective, we are carefully guided through rituals and meet the people who dedicate their lives to death. With a static camera and a dignified soundtrack of everyday conversations and plucked strings, we see both the peculiar and the macabre in how the end of life is handled, but we also feel great empathy and admiration for those who carry out these tasks each day.

• Annie Karlsson