In the organizer's words:

Start 7 pm with a visit from the director and Q&A afterwards!

Philipp Döring's documentary Palliative Ward is a comprehensive study of a place where life in its finiteness becomes visible - and at the same time an appreciation of the time that remains. Filmed in Berlin's Franziskus Hospital, Döring accompanies doctors and nurses on their rounds, in conversations with relatives and at internal team meetings. In doing so, he succeeds in providing an unusually intimate insight into a protected space in which farewells are consciously organized, progress is celebrated and people reflect on their own transience. While the 2022 film De Humani Corporis Fabrica already explored the inside of the human body on film, here the focus shifts to illness and dying: Away from pure pathology, towards a social discourse on care, dignity and closeness.

Palliative Care is not a gloomy film, but a work full of life, borne by trust and openness. Language plays a central role: it alternates between medical jargon, dialect and technical communication. Döring's approach - a one-man shoot without a budget, but with radical artistic freedom - makes the film a document about an institution that is often overlooked in social discourse. The result is a sensitive plea for a culture of conscious dying - and thus conscious living.