Vanity

David is an aging, sick architect who's to celebrate Christmas by committing assisted suicide. He orders assisted euthanasia at a motel that he once drew the blueprints for. Neither his own life nor the motel's development turned out like planned and we soon see that not even his suicide goes as planned. The woman from the euthanasia organization, Esperanza (Almodóvar's star Carmen Maura), seems to be remarkably uninitiated in the procedures and when David's son refuses to be the legal witness the only hope lies in Treplev, the Russian male prostitute in the room next door. The Swiss director Lionel Baier's latest film is a well-told and a highly entertaining drama comedy about three odd lives that come unexpectedly close one Christmas night in the periphery of Lausanne and life. (Göteborg Film Festival)