An interesting documentary that touches upon many sensitive and difficult themes. Framed by the director a love story of sorts it feels at times like a long goodbye as a widowed husband and his family go through the extended and unusual process of granting the final wish of his wife- having her body donated to science and used in the training of the next generation of doctors and surgeons.
Through this unusual juxtaposition of the medical and the religious it hints throughout at the difficulty humans face in reconciling the physical world and our materially defined reality and existence within it with our social selves and the spiritual world of existence and extended meaning we hope or pray exist beneath and beyond it at a deeper level. The silent teachers hope to bridge that gap as in death they give the ultimate noble sacrifice of their physical bodies to the next generation. Through this, in a way, they go on living via the invaluable learning they enable.
Through this unusual juxtaposition of the medical and the religious it hints throughout at the difficulty humans face in reconciling the physical world and our materially defined reality and existence within it with our social selves and the spiritual world of existence and extended meaning we hope or pray exist beneath and beyond it at a deeper level. The silent teachers hope to bridge that gap as in death they give the ultimate noble sacrifice of their physical bodies to the next generation. Through this, in a way, they go on living via the invaluable learning they enable.
