October 31, 2025
Sweet Death documentary opens the debate on right to choose
THE DOCUMENTARY DULCE MUERTE (SWEET DEATH), directed and written by Analeine Cal y Mayor, offers a profound reflection on the freedom to decide the end of one’s own life.
After a successful run at international festivals—including participation in the Morelia International Film Festival (FICM), winning Best Documentary at the 2025 Montreal Women Film Festival, and being officially selected for the 2026 Berlin Indie Film Festival—the film has been available in Mexican cinemas since 30 October, under the Cinestereo label.
With Viggo Mortensen (Green Book, The Lord of the Rings, and Captain Fantastic) as executive producer and Mauro Refosco providing the original music, Dulce Muerte builds a dialogue between ethics, science, and humanity.
Mortensen, a renowned actor and poet, supports the project, which seeks to bring a necessary debate to the table: the right to a dignified death.
Refosco, a Brazilian percussionist who has collaborated with David Byrne, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Atoms for Peace, provides a soundtrack that accompanies the film’s reflective and sensitive tone.
For 79 minutes, the documentary follows Dr Philip Nitschke, an Australian pioneer in the defence of euthanasia, who, after losing his medical licence, decides to reinvent himself as a stand-up comedian to talk about the right to die in countries where it is still prohibited.
At the same time, the camera follows Kathy Beech, a British woman who travels to Tijuana, Mexico, to obtain the medication that would allow her to die with dignity if she inherits the degenerative disease her mother suffered from.
‘Sweet Death is not a film about death, but about how we choose to live fully until the very last moment. It is a portrait of courage, love and dignity in the face of an issue that concerns us all: the freedom to decide about our own lives,’ say Cal and Mayor.
WHO DECIDES WHEN TO DIE? A REFLECTION IN ‘SWEET DEATH’
The founder of Cinestereo, Carlos Sosa, emphasises that the documentary was born out of a conviction to open up a space for dialogue. Cinema has the power to bring necessary debates to the table, and with Sweet Death we seek to do so through empathy and reflection,” he says.
Filmed in Mexico, the United Kingdom, Scotland, Italy and the Netherlands, the film brings together testimonies from Philip Nitschke, Fiona Stewart, Kathy and Richard Beech, Kevin Shepherd, Beryll Warren and Tom Curran.
The stories cross borders and converge on a universal question: ‘Whose decision is it, ultimately, to die?’
With sensitivity and a deeply human perspective, Dulce Muerte invites viewers to think of death not as an end, but as an extension of the right to live with dignity.
Its premiere in Mexico seeks to open an urgent conversation about freedom, empathy, and the very meaning of existence.
In context, in mid-October, Uruguay passed a law by a large majority in the Senate authorising euthanasia under certain conditions, becoming a pioneer in Latin America.
With 20 votes in favour out of a total of 31 parliamentarians present, the country joined the small list of nations that allow assisted death, such as Canada, the Netherlands and Spain.
In the region, Ecuador and Colombia have decriminalised euthanasia through court rulings, but this is the first time it has been approved through legislation.
