EXIT, le droit de mourir (the right to die) was announced the winner of the 5th EBU Golden Link Award by Jean Réveillon, Secretary General of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), during the Sunny Side of the Doc in Marseilles, France last week.
As the leading co-production partner, the Swiss French-speaking channel TSR, represented by Gaspard Lamunière and Irène Challand, was awarded a sculpture in bronze by MC Escher.
EXIT was co-produced by five European Public Broadcasters, all members of the EBU: TSR and TSI (Switzerland), Arte (France РGermany), TV2 (Denmark), and YLE (Finland). It has already received numerous documentary awards in Festivals (Visions du R̩el, Etats G̩n̩raux du documentaire, FIPA).
This documentary shows how volunteers accompany sick people towards a death of their choice that seems more dignified to them. Switzerland is the only country in the world where associations such as EXIT quite legally provide suicide assistance to people at the end of their lives.
In a society tending to control everything, they refer us back to this quintessential, intimate question: Is choosing our death not our ultimate freedom?
