The protagonist of Dying, a Berlin Film Festival award-winning screenplay, says: “Not everyone has the talent to be happy.” Matthias Glasner’s characters choose pain and unhappiness over lukewarm love or the pursuit of happiness. Over the course of six chapters - Lissy, Tom, Ellen, Thin Line, Love, and Life - the nearly three-hour epic explores the life issues faced by humanity. The film deals with themes such as illness, death, family, and work, and it seems to be the director’s intention not to touch the emotional lines. He doesn’t force beautiful relationships or ideal ways of living. As indicated by the fact that the music performed within the film shares its title, Dying centers on how each person’s depths are portrayed from an artistic standpoint. The dilemma from Glasner’s representative work, The Free Will (2006), is repeated at the climax of Dying, and the film surprisingly responds with a controversial development. Art is not about suggesting the best answers. (LEE Yong Cheol)