UNTIL DEATH UNITES US

Lady Death has been practicing her profession for ages and is already bored to death. Between assignments of cutting souls, she binge-watches love series, dreaming of real love and adventure. Her life changes when she falls for the scent of a dead Grandfather’s feet, whom she should escort to the afterlife. Instead, Death makes a deal with the Family: she won’t take him if they let her stay. She hopes to win his heart, though it still belongs to his deceased wife. Living with the Family proves difficult. The World of the Living is full of rules beyond her understanding, and her soap opera knowledge isn’t enough. The Malfunction Family also has its struggles: Mom still seeks approval from her critical Father while feeling she’s failing her teenage daughter, Nicoleta. In this strained arrangement, Lady Death tries to make the most of her time on Earth, trying to discover what life is worth living for.

Director’s statement
The idea for the feature animation about Lady Death comes from a short film “I am not here anymore” which I’ve finished at the end of 2023. Although this project is already closed, I had the feeling that the conflict and characters which I’ve created have the potential for a longer story. In the short story, the main character is the Grandfather as I wrote the script of this short after the death of my own Grandpa. I tried to express my feelings about that situation because it was very different from what I expected. It wasn’t hysterical, and it wasn’t just sad all the time. At times it was funny, and sometimes calm and beautiful.

For the feature film, I chose that the main character will be Lady Death, who dreams about true love and living a real life. By showing how she deals with living with an imperfect family and searching for love and happiness I want to reflect on the topic of searching for one's place in life in a comedic and lighthearted way.