"Det er ikke slut endnu" or "It Is Not Over Yet" is a Danish Danish-language documentary film from 2021, so a really new and fresh release, which you can also see from the amount of ratings here on imdb. I guess that Germany where I live is among those countries in which the film was released right after Denmark itself. The German title for this film is completely different compared to the two I mentioned at the very beginning, namely they went with "Mitgefühl", the German term for compassion. An okay choice too. I guess it is pretty difficult to fit this movie into a few words that do it justice. I am saying that because, as you can see from my rating as well, I thought this was a really good film overall. I will elaborate on the the reasons later on. Let's stay with the basics for now: This one runs for over 1.5 hours, not way over though, and was directed by Louise Detlefsen who started working in the industry approximately 20 years ago and has solely focused on documentaries apparently. So, far from a rookie and it shows. I guess she is also the writer here although there are key parts in here that are not written, most of all of course what the elderly people in here are saying and how they are reacting. This is a film on dementia you can say as it takes place at a home for the elderly in Scandinavia and the special thing about this place is that the people living there barely receive any medication. I think they mentioned one pill (or one piece of medication) per day early on and with other similar institutions, it's easily double-digit figures. So this is the reason why they went for this specific place. We do not only see the old people living there, however, we also see the ones caring for them, which is, with the exception of a doctor checking up occasionally on the patients (is that the right word?), exclusively women. The thought that these women in 30, maybe 40 years will be in the same state as those living there is something difficult to stomach. I hope they then have people that take good care of them too. Just like they are doing it now with the previous generation. But the thought that 40 years from now I will be the age of the people living there is just as difficult to grasp.
Anyway, what I actually wanted to say is that I thought there was not a great deal of acting to this. The young women seem dedicated when we see them deal with the elderly. I mean obviously they sometimes have bad days too and I am sure they put in an extra effort here with the camera recording, but it felt authentic to me. I guess you can also consider that the families of those living there gave permission for their elderly being filmed, so they must think highly of this institution. There were many haunting moments in here. Of course, the subject of dementia and Alzheimer's is one that almost always gets to me, but you can say a bit that this is kind of the real life version of the Oscar-winning The Father, another good movie, but I personally like this one here even better. I hope that many people will see it in the coming months when it receives a wide release in other countries. This film is also evidence that the Danes are not only good in short films and dark comedy/crime movies, but can also deliver convincingly on the documentary front and I hope we will hear a lot more from Detlefsen in the future. She is 50 now I see, so many years of filmmaking left for her. There is no narrator here and no interview situations. We are basically an invisible observer. They probably cut out all those moments in which the elderly were talking to the one filming. There is a bit of a twist very early on as we find out that one fairly old man who moves in with his wife thinks that he is only there to assist her with her physical issues, but that is not the truth. Truth is that he also stays there because he lately has deteriorated mentally. And he has a pretty big ego and also aggression issues, so they are going with this white lie and of course they spoke to the relatives about it that this is maybe the right approach. However, other than in one situation when the man is talking to another woman living there, this is not referenced again and just the status quo. That's okay. He was also the one who was part of one of the more depressing moments when we find out that one person hit a woman in the face in a way that her glasses broke. We do not see this scene (luckily), but find out from the words of those working there and also from the aforementioned doctor coming by.
A great deal of this is the nurses there talking to each other when we are brought up-to-date with the current situation. This becomes especially devastating in the last 20 or 25 minutes maybe when they discuss the situation of one elderly female patient and how she seems to be looking for closure and her soul is ready to leave her body. She does not eat anymore really, stopped drinking almost entirely too, so it is a bit of a suicide you can say. I don't want to call it an assisted suicide, but you get the meaning. She is ready to go and eventually she goes as well, which shows you the really tough emotional challenges for the nurses working there as well. It is a job I would not be able to do because of that. It must also have been a difficult situation for the family really to deal with all of this and allow the filmmaker to record it. We see one scene for example in which the woman I am talking about gets some morphine against her pain and this is pretty graphic as you can see the pain in her face and body really. The next scene she is gone. In addition to her, I also want to mention an elderly male living there. We do not find out a lot about him. We see him drink his soup very early on and you can see that he is struggling. He dies as well, but this was more of an inclusion to introduce us to the permanent element of death in this place and we see everybody, staff and elderly, bid farewell to the man. May he rest in peace too. He is not forgotten. Every time somebody dies we also see new people coming there like a woman who found her dead husband years ago and has suffered a stroke and is also not fully there mentally anymore. Felt sorry for her too. And in the very end, we see a woman who is really reluctant to deal with the situation and just wants to go home. There we see how maybe the man would have dealt with this situation, probably more aggressively, had he known what is really in store for him.
For me personally those scenes that included flashbacks, like videos that show the elderly as young people, were especially haunting because it shows us how time is so relentless and nobody can oppose the aging process. But it also teaches us to live our lives to the fullest while we are still young because in the end we may not really be able to anymore and nobody should have regrets then. So use your time the right way. It is definitely also an inspiring movie from this perspective. Another scene I really liked was the tree hugging scene. This is actually the one you see on the poster here on imdb at this point. On the left, there is the old woman allowed to pick a tree and on the right there is the tree. This had a really nice "back to nature" component to it all because I mean think about how ridiculous most (young) people would consider such a scenario, but here you see really what it means to her and there is no way at all she could have faked this delight and joy in that specific moment. So you don't have to hug trees or anything, but just go out and enjoy nature and its beauty to the fullest while you can during your very limited time frame on this planet. There is this clock example if the time since the beginning of the universe was a day or something and how minimal a human life (85 years or so) is in comparison. But I do not want to get too philosophical now. Let me just say that this is a really beautiful movie that is striking all the right notes and you will remember it for quite a while after you have seen it. Probably long after you have seen it. I still don't like the idea that maybe five years from now none of the elderly in here will still be alive, but we probably won't find out.
With all the depressing inclusions, let me still say there are also delightful moments. Take one character sitting next to another so they don't feel lonely. Take one character being quite a stud to this day. Take the joke about the dead dog (beautiful dog by the way). Take all the animals like chickens and others that you do not really see. I think there were goats on one occasion slightly visible. I love goats! Take the joy and respectful behavior between the old people (and the nurses). Take one woman flirting with a doctor etc. There is a lot more. This is not just a depressing movie. It is one that depicts life and finds a good and realistic balance when it comes to depicting the maybe sometimes depressing challenges like the man who cannot get up for quite some time and the sweetness that involves eating cake and drinking a glass of wine on the Danish queen's birthday. I applaud everybody who was a part of this project and I am glad this was made. It will probably be shown on television many times as well in the coming years, so if you miss(ed) out on it in the movie theater now, then there's your chance to see it. Don't miss out again. Highest rating possible because it's a movie from the heart to the heart and you can take a lot from it. Highly, highly recommended. A must-see. Also for me personally brings up the sweetness to see how people have been living for 60 years or more with each other, so basically having shared that one life with this one special person. Something everybody could (not "should", let alone "must") aim at in this ever-changing, ever-accelerating world we live in. To have moments like these when you sit next to each other in your 80s and talk about how you really cannot complain for you have led a fulfilling life.
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