Cancer may take everything from you: your health, your beauty, your work, even your family. It can also take your life. With its stigma, cancer becomes the ultimate fear, often leading to resignation and spiritual death. But it is not cancer itself that destroys us. It is the shadow of unexpected death that trails behind.

Fear follows. 

Life plans vanish. 

A void opens. What’s next? 

To escape that void, we must find strength…  the strength to face what we fear most. You may have cancer, but you must banish the fear of death. Embrace stillness. Only then are you truly free. And there is nothing more beautiful than freedom from fear. Cancer can be our ultimate killer, or our potent teacher, revealing the profound importance of life. Through this rediscovery, we can reclaim what we’ve been missing all along: the serenity of the soul, and perhaps, a selfless love for all.

A National Geographic filmmaker boldly confronts his encounter with cancer in the documentary Memento Mori. Through stunning cinematography, philosophical reflections, and unexpected humour, the film explores the discovery of enlightenment within the dark enigma of cancer and mortality.But this film is not about medical procedures or healthy living.

Memento Mori invites us to reflect deeply on our lives in the face of mortality. It is a philosophical exploration of life… a perspective largely forgotten in the modern world. It is a call to free ourselves from fear and the constraints of tangible existence,
and to embrace the one life we are given with dignity, humility, love, and purpose, without wasting time on trivialities.

Life is experienced, and then it is extinguished. This much we know. But do we ever truly live? Or do we stumble, shackled by fear, blinded by ignorance, living only the illusion of life… just an illusion… hoping that there is more time for living?

But what if there are only three months left? What if… only five days?

Memento Mori is an immersive and captivating film that blends cinema vérité with artistic visuals and philosophical depth. It incorporates extraordinary footage from diverse corners of the world, capturing the essence of life and mortality, transporting viewers to faraway and visually striking places. It leaves audiences breathless in contemplation and invites them to reflect on the most profound existential questions.

Renowned psychologist Gabor Maté offers thoughtful insight, and the film explores psychological and spiritual themes, including the philosophy of death as seen by Buddha, Jesus, Epicurus, Zeno, and Nietzsche.

 The inevitability of our death defines the finite nature of our existence: a truth too often overlooked. In our pursuit of survival, we surrender to distractions, unaware of their quiet destruction of spiritual growth. This forgetfulness distances us from ancient wisdom, from Aristotelian philosophy, which teaches that the purpose of life is the pursuit of goodness and selfless love for all.

In the end… we all die with scars left on our bodies.

With lovers. Tribes. Abandoned castles. Stories left behind.

With hope, or fear, of what comes next.