Nathan - Free as a Bird

When 44-year-old Nathan Verhelst underwent euthanasia in September 2013, his death became world news. This Belgian was not suffering from a life-threatening disease, but he was struggling with the unbearable and incurable suffering caused by a miserable past and a series of failed sex-change operations. Nathan felt like a freak and couldn’t find happiness as either a man or a woman. Even his loyal friends couldn’t change his mind, so they chose to support him until he breathed his last breath. Nathan was born as Nancy into a family that viewed girls as undesirable. His mother thought he was ugly and made no attempt to hide her feelings. What’s more, Nancy was abused by one of her brothers. The feeling of living in the wrong body and the subsequent distress caused by the operations finished Verhelst off mentally. Roel Nollet followed Nathan for three years over the course of a process that ends differently from anything the filmmaker could have imagined. Ultimately, the focus of the film is on Nathan’s final week of life, which is documented in detail. Recordings of Nathan, conversations with his close friends, Nathan’s own audio recordings from the past and news reports about Nathan’s case all serve to complete an inhumanly tragic story that ends humanely.