The Room Next Door

Longtime friends Martha and Ingrid have drifted apart, living different lives as a war journalist and an author. Following a terminal cancer diagnosis, Martha reaches out to Ingrid, but with a stipulation – that Ingrid is nearby when Martha takes a euthanasia pill. While Ingrid wonders why Martha didn’t choose someone closer to her, she agrees.

Martha says she will always leave her bedroom door open, except when she takes her pill. The two reconnect by discussing memories, interests, and a past love, but skirt around Martha’s situation. As they reflect on their lives and mortality, their relationship strengthens, and Ingrid hopes to find a way to articulate everything before Martha’s door shuts forever.

Adapted from the novel What Are You Going Through by Sigrid Nunez, and winner of the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore give emphatic performances in this drama from renowned director Pedro Almodóvar, who handles the subjects of death and euthanasia with thoughtful consideration.

“Almodóvar’s discourse on death is teeming with life.” Total Film

“The Room Next Door isn’t a weighty philosophical work – as mature as it is, it still has glimmers of cheeky humour and campy melodrama. But it develops into a sweetly heartfelt reflection on ageing…” BBC

“The movie is all about death, yet in the unblinking honesty with which it confronts that subject, it’s powerfully on the side of life.” Variety

“a substantial achievement” Screen International

12A: infrequent strong language, drug misuse, moderate threat, upsetting scenes