AllMovie

No late 20th century psychoanalyst did more to help patients and the general public cope with (and comprehend) the process of human death than Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross. Born in Zurich, Switzerland, Kübler-Ross earned her MD from the University of Zurich and evinced concern, generated by her firsthand observations, over the medical community's tendency to suppress open discussion of death with terminally ill patients. She also identified five basic psychological stages traversed by most individuals who gain an awareness of their impending demise: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance - as outlined in her seminal 1969 tome On Death and Dying. Stefan Haupt's documentary Elisabeth Kübler-Ross: Facing Death pays heartfelt and loving homage to the late psychiatrist by recounting her life story - from her birth as a underweight triplet who very nearly didn't survive, to the publication of the said book, to her establishment of a healing center in Virginia (which arsonists later burned to the ground) and her own death from a stroke in late 2004. The program intercuts extended and revealing footage from an exclusive interview with the late doctor, archival film and photographs, and on-camera conversations with Kübler-Ross's friends, family and colleagues.