The dusty rays of the afternoon sun shine in between the massive trees in a garden where a small group of old people are sitting silently in each other's company. We are in an old people's home, which itself is not so young any more, but which is nonetheless - just like the five residents we here become acquainted with - still standing. Their names are Dorian, Sarita, Luis, Morena and Juan, and they have all reached the 'last station' on the road of life. However, it is thanks to the Chilean directing duo Christian Soto & Catalina Vergaras that you learn more about life than about death in a film, where every image could have been painted by Hammershøi, and where the mere passing of time achieves an almost material form through the simple, but subtle camera movements. When did a film last have this almost sculptural level of gravity? One imperceptibly thinks of masters such as Tarkovksy and Angelopoulos, but without being overshadowed by the past - and this can be seen as a point - 'The Last Station' simply lets us register the calm passing of the seasons, while the golden light in the living rooms fade out from dawn to chiaroscuro. Funny, heartbreaking and deeply human in equal measures; they have their own radio channel at the home, and the phenomenal final image of its host at work inspires a belief that life is not something that is quite so easy to extinguish.

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