End Game (2018)

I don't know why since I like documentaries —and shorts are right up to my alley as I don't have a lot of time lately—, but I skipped all the Oscar nominees this year and I started watching them only last week. Netflix's End Game was my first pick because of its sensitive subject. 

As you probably guessed either from the title or the poster, this documentary follows a few terminally ill people in the last days of their lives as they and their loved ones decide under what circumstances they'll leave this world, whether in a hospice, at home, or somewhere else. 

It mainly focuses on Mitra, an Iranian woman dying of a terminal illness. We see her husband and mother struggle with the decision to keep fighting for her or let her go. We see their options reduce as Mitra's illness worsens. We see the pain of a mother who is going to survive to her daughter, the pain of a husband losing his lover, and the pain of a child losing his mother too soon. 

End Game also put under the spotlight a team of visionary doctors that try their best to make the departure as comfortable and peaceful as possible. While they make clear to the patients that they are going to die, they try to give them hope and peace. The charismatic Dr. BJ Miller, Executive Director of the Zen Hospice Center, stands out as he shares his personal story, how he went through his own grief after losing both of his legs and his left arm at the age of nineteen. He has so much strength and the way he shares his positive attitude with others is both heartwarming and inspiring.

Netflix

End Game is heartbreaking, so painful to watch you will think you won't be able to sit through its 40 minutes —I couldn't help but think of my grandpa who passed away in 2011 after a long illness—, and yet you do because the sensitive subject is handled with so much heart and respect, because the painful moments are balanced with light and humorous ones. It's a tough watch but it's worth watching.