There’s no time like the present, would be a good description of a phenomenon Paula Oneţ came across in the region of Cluj in Romania, which made her curious. Women and men in the second half of their lives but still quite hale and hearty are intensely concerned about the photo that’s to be mounted on their own headstone – not as a hypothetical issue, but as a very concrete undertaking.
Visits to the hairdresser are made, photo shootings scheduled, serious discussions had over headstones which, though the owner is still very much alive, are already standing on the graves, decorated with flowers and wreathes. The headstone, including a carefully produced and selected portrait, is a status symbol during one’s lifetime. And it’s the – evidently – vain attempt to determine how you want to be remembered by posterity. But what may seem an eccentric and possibly bothersome task at first glance actually shows a healthy, fear-free attitude to one’s own death.
“As You Like It” is an entertaining reflection about our earthly existence and the human need to understand one’s inevitable demise as a part of life.

Lina Dinkla