Afscheid

Aleida Hartstra is 29 years old and suffers from leukaemia. In afscheid Aleida prepares herself for her death. She decides to stop taking medicine, knowing that she will not live much longer. She visits her friends and favourite places to say goodbye, confronting her friends and relatives with the irrevocability of this farewell. Later, when the time has come that she is bedridden, she can only wait for the end. All the choices have been made, she is forced to surrender. But she is not afraid: "If you have the luck to die surrounded by your loved ones, there is nothing to be afraid of. Death is just part of life", she says a few days before her death. (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)