Until Death Unites Us

This is a story about Lady Death — a woman dying of boredom in her job. One day, she makes a mistake and turns a dead Grandfather into a “Stuck Soul” — someone stuck in their body until they complete their “Life Mission”. Because of this, Lady Death must stay on Earth and help him. She lives with the Grandfather’s family and, while helping, decides to explore human life. Each member of the family is completely different. The dog is very spiritual and loves microdosing with mushrooms. Nikolata, the teenage granddaughter, is a fan of gothic culture and believes that her family is cursed. Vita - daughter of George and mother of Nikoleta - loves fitness and positive female energy. And Grandfather George… hmmm… It is easier to describe what he hates, because he hates almost everything and everybody. And his only true passion is throwing an axe. But, for Lada Death, it seems that the most interesting part of life is… love. So she decides: she wants to experience real summer romance. But finding love is not easy, and instead of being loved, she is being ghosted. Luckily, she discovers other parts of life, like enjoying all day on the beach or suffering from sunburn. Finally, she doesn’t find a romantic partner, but she finds something better — deep love for living. So she decides to give up her job, her immortality, and chooses to live as a human — a short life, maybe, but full of heartbreaks, sunburns, and a cute yoga teacher.

Director’s statement
The idea for the feature animation about Lady Death comes from a short film, “I Am Not Here Anymore”, which I made in 2023, after the death of my grandfather. In my experience, it was not simply a sad and hysterical process. My grandfather was one kind character, and even when he was dying, thanks to his famous honesty and humor, he provided us with moments of laughter. His last big laugh was when he peed in the bed, and my father accidentally sat on it. Probably, I inherited sophisticated humor after him.
But, except for the silly laughter, my bigger lesson was understanding that even absolutely sad moments can include beauty and love for living. And that life can be much fuller when we decide to embrace all kinds of experiences - including being vulnerable and honest with our feelings. Therefore, I decided to explore the topic of living one’s life in all its colours in a longer form – a feature animation about Lady Death.
As Natalia was the author of the character design for my short, we had a chance to find out that we share a similar sense of humor and visual taste. Therefore, we decided to develop this concept together. While working on our story, we gradually understood that the image that moves us the most is a person who is too scared to live her life fully. And that’s the case of Lady Death.
The fact that she is a character from another reality, unfamiliar with the rules governing life on Earth, allows us to create many humorous situations — from awkward attempts at experiencing a holiday romance to getting back pain after sleeping in a tent. It also allows us to ask all those ponderous questions, like - „What kind of life is worth dying for?”. We're not sure about the answer, but based on Lady Death's experiences, it seems that the one full of creepy teenagers, drug addicted dogs, and emotionally twisted adults is worth sacrificing your immortality!