Vera (2019)

Vera is a young woman who provides assisted dying at people’s request by poisoning them with an anesthetic. She does so with great compassion. As part of the death ritual, she sings her clients a (presumably) Portuguese lullaby. In the film’s first five minutes, the ritual is shown with a client named Petra. When Vera is hired by Marvin, the son of Gerda, who apparently has dementia, she discovers that Marvin is sedating his mother with medication. Vera also hears Gerda humming the lullaby that is part of her ritual. When Vera sings it to Gerda, she realizes that Gerda seems to emerge from her dementia and speaks of a daughter named Evelyn, whom she taught the song. The fact that Vera’s mother was also named Evelyn and had passed the song on suggests that, in addition to Marvin, there must have been a daughter named Evelyn who was Vera’s mother. Vera is therefore Gerda’s granddaughter. Marvin and his daughter Zoe suspect that Gerda, their mother and grandmother respectively, has hidden more valuables in the house. They want to use Vera to find the box containing the unknown valuables; Zoe researched Vera for this purpose and hired her. Vera finds the box by correctly interpreting the lullaby, but the supposed valuables turn out to be nothing more than commemorative photos of Evelyn. During the search, violent confrontations take place between Vera and Marvin, and between Vera and Zoe. Vera survives, covered in blood. The film ends with the lullaby and the light being turned off in Gerda’s room.