THE ROOM NEXT DOOR

Ingrid (Oscar winner Julianne Moore) is a bestselling author so famously afraid of death she has written a book about it. When she learns that Martha (Oscar winner Tilda Swinton, also at this year’s Festival in The End) — a former war correspondent — is ill, she visits her in hospital, reigniting a friendship from years past, when both were journalists.

Martha is fighting another war now, and the rekindled closeness between the women means Ingrid is drawn into her gruelling cycle of treatments as stories are told, secrets are revealed, and regret, redemption, and mortality are discussed over tea. One day, Martha asks Ingrid for the one thing she is most hesitant to give. The way they negotiate life’s deepest choices is what makes the film so memorable.