‘Another End’ Star Gael García Bernal Waxes Philosophical on Mind, Soul and Body After Death

Gael Garcia Bernal grappled with questions of body and mind after death on Saturday at the Berlin Film Festival after starring in Another End, which is world premiering in Berlin.

Appearing in Italian director Piero Messina’s sci-fi drama, it turns out, changed the Mexican actor’s stance on death heralding the separation of the soul from the physical body. “Yes. It’s funny, normally I would lie and say yes, without really meaning it. But in this case, I really mean it,” Bernal declared.

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Another End is set in a not-too-distant future has a novel way for people to ease the pain of grief over someone they’ve lost by introducing technology that implants the loved one’s memories in a rented body.

Bernal in the film plays Sal, who is encouraged by his sister (Bérénice Bejo), to use the new technology to ease his grief, only to reconnect with his late wife through the body of another woman, played by The Worst Person in the World breakout Renate Reinsve.

Bernal added that getting older and more experienced had him pondering mind-body questions around death. “In Western culture, we normally think that the body is not the person, the body is a disposable vessel in a way.”

Bernal added during the Berlin presser: “We’ve so detached the body from the life of the person. I started to wonder if it’s not so separate. And that really changed me in many ways.”

Messina and other Another End cast members also searched for answers when asked about how to respect love and memory after someone’s death, including through using futuristic technology.

Messina said he struggled at times to forge a narrative structure for Another End as he played with philosophical concepts around death. “It was a kind of a game. I was trying to have coherent elements, and then strange elements came suddenly. We were trying to create a world which is maybe not completely precise as a science fiction story, but was a concise feeling,” the director recalled.

Bernal also welcomed Another End as a sci-fi drama that helps restore a depleted supply of romantic movies today. “I don’t think there’s so many romantic movies around. I mean, we’re talking about own grandparents in a way, but I am proud and I’d like to thank Piero so much for having been able to contribute to the film and where the journey is going,” Bernal said with a nod to Messina.

But The Crown alum Olivia Williams dissented when asked whether she might use technology as depicted in Another End to connect with someone who is dead. “With all due respect to our writer, I think it’s a terrible idea to bring people back,” she said. “It patently extends the pain, unless you get to meet Renate, who would fall in love with you. But in every other respect, it seems like a terrible way to get over it.”

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