‘The Final Act’ offers an intimate view of death through people who chose MAID

Montreal filmmaker Sophie Deraspe’s documentary “The Final Act” premieres Sunday at the Toronto International Film Festival. The film follows people who chose medical assistance in dying, or MAID, as they say goodbye to family and share their final reflections.

Among them is 69-year-old Céline Carpentier, whose death Deraspe filmed. After recording Carpentier’s final breaths, Deraspe said the ordinary scenes on her drive home — light, people talking, moving cars and someone mowing a lawn — came into unusually sharp focus. When she arrived home, she told her son she had filmed someone dying. He asked to see the footage, and Deraspe said watching it left her both saddened by Carpentier’s death and moved by the beauty of the moment.

The people shown in the film faced different circumstances, but all said they no longer wanted to suffer. Deraspe said the documentary is not about the political and legal debates surrounding MAID since it was legalized in Canada a decade ago. Instead, it examines death’s place in society through people who chose the procedure and the health providers who assist them.

In Canada, people enduring intolerable suffering from a serious and incurable illness or disability may apply for MAID. The requirement that death be reasonably foreseeable was removed in 2021, a change that has remained divisive. Some argue death should not be offered as a response to suffering, while others want access extended to more people who are suffering.

Deraspe said she was surprised by how many people welcomed her camera and wanted to share their feelings before they died. In the documentary, 101-year-old Paulette Fiset-Germain says before receiving MAID that people come into the world to share.

The director said she tried to remain unobtrusive while filming, though that was not always possible. As Carpentier lay in bed surrounded by loved ones, Deraspe realized she had forgotten to remove a microphone from her. Carpentier reminded her to take it off. The film does not discuss Carpentier’s diagnosis, but she says she did not want her life to end in a steep decline and viewed this way of dying as a relief. Deraspe said they had met only twice, but their goodbye felt deeply real.

“The Final Act” also screens at TIFF on Tuesday, Sept. 15, and is scheduled for theatrical release in April.