Pedro Almodóvar’s Says ‘The Room Next Door’ Is in ‘Favor of Euthanasia

Pedro Almodóvar’s “The Room Next Door,” starring Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton, deals with a controversial topic: euthanasia.

Marking Almodóvar’s first English-language feature, “The Room Next Door” stars the two Oscar winners as Ingrid (Moore) and Martha (Swinton), who were close friends in their youth when they worked at the same magazine. After years of separation, they meet again when Martha is diagnosed with a terminal illness and decides to take her life into her own hands.

During the film’s Venice Film Festival press conference on Monday, the Spanish auteur spoke passionately about addressing the subject in the film and why he thinks it should be an option for those facing the same fate.

“This movie is in favor of euthanasia,” he said, speaking in Spanish. “It is something we admire about the character of Tilda, she decides that getting rid of cancer can only be done by making the decision she actually makes. ‘If I get there before, cancer will not win over me,’ she says. And so she finds a way to reach her objective with the help of her friend, but they have to behave as if they were criminals.”

Almodóvar’s home country of Spain legalized euthanasia in 2021, and he believes the rest of the globe should follow suit.

“There should be the possibility to have euthanasia all over the world,” he said to applause from reporters. “It should be regulated and a doctor should be allowed to help his patient.”

Although the film is clearly about death, stars Moore and Swinton highlighted the ways in which it also celebrates life.

Moore said, “There’s such a tremendous life force in Pedro’s movies, and that’s what we all respond to. It’s almost like, when you’re watching these movies, you could hear everybody’s heartbeat.”

She talked about the movie’s existential themes and said it ponders on “what does it mean to be alive? What does it mean to be a human being? What does it mean to have a body? What does it mean to have a friend? What does it mean to have a witness?”

Swinton described the movie as a “love story” between her character and Moore’s.

“It’s really a love story between Ingrid and Martha . And when I say love, I mean that really essential thing, that essential friendship that is in the heart of all life, hopefully.”

“The Room Next Door” is Almodóvar’s follow-up to 2021’s “Parallel Mothers,” which also bowed at Venice and scored the fest’s best actress Volpi Cup for Penelope Cruz’s performance. Almodóvar’s past projects to premiere at Venice also include 1983’s “Dark Habits”; 1988’s “Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown,” which won the best screenplay award; and his 2020 short film “The Human Voice” starring Swinton. He received the fest’s lifetime achievement award in 2019.

After its Venice premiere, “The Room Next Door” will open in theaters Dec. 20 from Sony Pictures Classics.