Memento mori

Memento Mori

Under inspelningen av ”Naturens hämnd” träffade jag Peter. Han hade cancer och ville vara med i filmen. Hans avsikt med sin medverkan var att bidra till diskussionen om vad som orsakade cancer. En dag ringde han och sa att nu måste vi skynda oss att spela in. Han hade snabbt blivit mycket sämre. Vi for ut till sjukhuset och gjorde en intervju men han blev oerhört trött och somnade. Vi lämnade sjukhuset och fick samma dag veta att han avlidit, några timmar efter vårt besök. Vi blev förstås bestörta. Jag färdigställde denna kortfilm eftersom materialet inte passade in i långfilmen.

Memento Mori

”One of the sequences which was cut from Nature’s Revenge at an early stage was an interview with a 35-year-old man suffering from lung cancer. The original idea had been to start the film with this man, and the return to him at various points throughout it as a sort of commentary.
But even during the first days of shooting with him, something happened which threw all the plans into disarray.
He died.
Jarl realized that he could hardly begin Nature’s Revenge in that manner, but he had promised the man that he would be in the film. Instead, he got his own film: Memento Mori.
It is eleven gruesome and unpleasant mi­nutes long. From his hospital bed, in an incred­ibly naked and importunate manner, the man lays bare his bitterness against his father who doesn’t visit him and the immeasurable sorrow vis a vis his children, who ”don’t under­stand”-a phrase which he repeats again and again.
Memento Mori is a number of takes from exactly the same camera angle. The last scene shows the empty bed, an image which slowly fades into white. Shortly before that, we see the text ”Support cancer research”. In that sense, Memento Mori is a pure ”campaign” film.
Memento Mori has only been screened in one cinema on one occasion: at the Berlin International Film Festival where it was shown by special invitation. It was offered to the cinemas as a supporting feature, but nobody wanted it. They said that a film with such a depressing message would spoil any other film …”

/Mats Nilsson