THE BEYOND
a film by Daniel Maurer
Rennaz Hospital Center
At first I wanted to work as an ambulance driver.
And then I had a motorbike accident.
It was a serious accident, yes!
That was…
I spent quite a bit of time
in the hospital though.
When I woke up in the hospital, I thought to myself...
That...
…that I could have easily died
and not been here now with you today.
And that day,
everything turned around in my head when I had this accident.
And I thought to myself:
No, maybe it's not my place to be an ambulance driver.
My place is helping people
at difficult times, when they've lost someone.
I thought to myself that...
…it was good to be able to help people
get over this course that I also had to take
having lost my friends and relatives, very close ones too.
Hello sir !
Hello Madam !
We did not have an increase in deaths in the first wave.
But in the second wave …
We almost had 3 times the number of deaths.
Hello sir !
And we do not know when it will end this second wave.
Yes, Cochard Mathieu, Rennaz death chamber, hello?
OK no worries !
You did … ?
Yes.
All the papers are done ? It's all good ?
So, it works, so I will come!
See you ! Thank you, ciao, ciao!
Hello Madam !
The worst day in November…
I arrived at 7:30 one morning.
I'm looking at my fridge entry death list,
so the deaths that were
taken down overnight.
And I see there were 5 that have been moved down overnight.
It felt like I wasn’t doing the same job anymore.
I said to myself: Where will I start with?
5 deaths represent approximately 10 hours of preparatory work.
Without the administrative tasks ...
And as the day went on,
we had more deaths.
And we ended the day with 7 deaths of the day.
We'll do the haircut afterwards, huh? You will tell me how…
…your hair is? Will you help me?
A dead person is cold.
But…
I think
it’s so beautiful,
the contact…
the opportunity to have that contact with this person.
It's not because she doesn't answer us
that she doesn't listen to us.
There you go…
I’ll remove these 2, 3 little hairs under the nose!
This month I had a death that particularly affected me.
It was due to a person I knew
and who arrived in the emergency room.
And that the next day I found in the morgue
and had to deal with it.
And with this person
I did spend my holidays.
He was a friend.
He was also…
He was a friend.
So I also knew everyone around him.
It was complicated
to prepare this friend.
And when the family came ...
…they said:
"He’s wonderful!
He looks like he’s sleeping!"
Here we are, Madame!
Your husband, he's coming!