Films by Thomas Becka

France, Germany 2023, 93 min
by Tuki Jencquel

Paris, Summer 2018. Jacqueline Jencquel (74) lives a comfortable life in a splendid apartment in Saint-Germain. Apart from a few age-related ailments, she's in good health. And yet Jackie has decided to die. A mother, grandmother and dedicated right-to-die activist, she sparks a media frenzy by announcing that she will end her life in January 2020.As the clock ticks, she faces the camera of one of her three sons. Taboos are broken in an honest exchange about death, love, desire and motherhood. Though determined to go ahead, she postpones her final act, in order to enjoy one last spring, one last summer. But when Jackie learns of the imminent birth of a grandchild, she begins to waver and she pushes back “the date” yet again. Seizing on this grace period, Jackie’s son records a series of increasingly meaningful encounters with his mother as he struggles to accept her decision and to learn to let go.

Germany, Venezuela 2018, 70 min
by Jurgen Jencquel

As the public health system collapses, a pharmacist, a trauma surgeon, a social activist, and two cancer patients confront the same questions as millions of other Venezuelans struggling to survive in a nation plunged into chaos: to protest or to acquiesce, to emigrate or to stick it out, to lose all hope or to hang on to faith? Together they take to the stage to act out their circumstances and find emotional release.