The Farewell Party, an Israeli film by Tal Granit and Sharon Maymon is shown in Toronto Film Festival. Tal and Sharon wrote and directed this dark comedy about friends in a retirement community in Jerusalem who begin to explore the very difficult question of how to die with some peace and dignity. Yehzekel (Ze’ev Revach) is an inventor who is called upon to create what amounts to an assisted suicide machine, much to the horror of his wife, who believes what he and a couple of friends are doing is murder.
While the shares some themes with Amour, it’s entirely different in tone, and much more focused on the web of friendships and interdependence that develops and remains when people share their lives, no matter what their age.
(Linda Lowlands of NPR Broadcast)