Time of Closure

Zeit des Abschieds / Switzerland 2006 / 63min. German, Swiss German with English subtitles. M Content may disturb.
Director Mehdi Sahebi / Producer Pascal Traechslin, Filippo Bonacci

“So, I'm ready to die. Shall we continue?”

Giuseppe Tommasi’s sardonic question opens director Sahebi’s latest documentary. Terminally ill, he knows that the cancer pervading his body means he has little time left. This is Guisi’s farewell letter.

As a child of Italian migrants in Switzerland, his adoptive parents failed to provide a loving home. A handsome and intelligent character, he never found his place in society, abandoned his career, left his wife and children and spiralled into drug addiction. Aged 44, worn out from AIDS and cancer, he does not want to die as a junkie, but as a father, or at least as a citizen.

The intimate cinematography details Guisi in close-up, his ruffled black hair, his sparkling eyes, his body exhausted by the tubes and valves that feed him medicine, sedatives and sometimes methadone. Despite the upsetting aspects of his future-less present, the lighter sequences have a cathartic function. Refreshingly, he is completely devoid of self-pity and manages to purvey a sense of wisdom, which is rendered all the more powerful by his clarity of mind and his startling sense of humour. Brutally honest and relentless, Guisi comes to terms with his own past and provides answers for his children.

Time of Closure is more than a portrait of a man on the brink of death, but a challenging contemporary document that is both moving and illuminating.

Sahebi’s loving tribute to his friend is gifting him an opportunity to make a dignified exit on camera, as a human being. A rare and touching film made all the more powerful by the director’s friendship with the subject.

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