Mothers Don't Jump from Flats

2014

56min

In 2002, Elena Lindemans's mother Willemien took her own life by jumping off an apartment building. She had asked for euthanasia as a way out of her unbearable mental suffering. As a mental health patient, her request was rejected on principle, leaving suicide her only way out. Elena and her family knew what Willemien was planning to do, but they didn't stop her. They decided to let her go. In the documentary Mothers don't jump off buildings, director Elena Lindemans goes looking for the residents of the apartment building who witnessed her mother's jump, and the doctors who dealt with her request for assisted suicide. She also talks to her own family for the first time about what happened on that Monday afternoon.