Meanwhile on Earth review – amusingly surreal look at the mundane business of death
Though its presentation feels familiar, this Swedish doc is an entertaining look at the quotidian work that goes into funerals
The mundane practicalities of death as a business are the subject of this brisk and enjoyable Swedish documentary, following various funereal professionals (morgue workers, hearse drivers, gravediggers etc.) across their daily routines. It’s the kind of subject matter that could feel ghoulish, but the doses of surreal humour and precise professionalism provided by director Carl Olsson keeps things from ever getting too grim.
As you might expect, the characters you meet here – those who make their living around the dying of others – are entertainingly eccentric, though Olsson is carefully empathetic in his framing of all of his subjects. Some are silent throughout, purely pragmatic professionals, while others are chatty – most notably a pair of hearse drivers who fill their long drive times with dialogue that wouldn’t feel out of place in a Tarantino script.
When it comes to the morgue scenes themselves, we overhear the grisly conversations of the morticians, but Olsson keeps any unsavoury visuals to a minimum, taking care that every person in Meanwhile on Earth, living or dead, is afforded the dignity they deserve.
Presentation-wise, Meanwhile on Earth is made up entirely of the static camera tableaux and lack of any external contextualisations that seem rather in vogue for 2020s documentaries. It’s a style that does feel rather fitting for the odd environs of the film but does at this point, after seeing quite a few docs that look just like this in recent weeks, feel pretty tired. There is at least a sparsely-used but amusing score here, though, that, alongside some repeated quasi-Lynchian visuals, grants an occasional cinematic feel that is otherwise lacking.
At a very slight 72 minutes, Meanwhile on Earth does pretty much fly by, and the behind-the-scenes look at events that most of us look at with a simple dread is intriguing, but I did find myself wanting just a little bit more depth and variety as it explores this inevitable final stop of our lives.
Meanwhile on Earth is released on True Story from 10 February.
Where to watch
