The 4 horsemen of the Apocalypse meet to review the state of humanity and discuss strategies for the future. A weak and dying Death receives his companions with the intention of convincing them to torment humans less, but Famine, Pestilence and War dream of a humanity trapped in a world without escape.
Psychiatrist Dr. Helena Jarra conducts a series of psychological experiments on several patients afflicted with schizophrenia in order to prove that schizophrenia is connected with paranormal phenomena. Jarra takes a handful of schizophrenics to a secluded house that's rumored to be haunted. Parapsychologist Matias Kram documents the events on videotape for posterity.
An esteemed piano tuner and repairer, Jacobo leads an apparently happy life with his wife, Helena. His serene existence is thrown into a state of confusion when insomnia creeps in, and pianos that previously repaired miraculously overnight remain unfixed. Jacobo plunges into paranoia and madness, hearing noises during the night and having ephemeral visions of a stranger roaming the house in a dressing gown. Helena reassuringly denies anything out of the ordinary, and suspiciously insists he is hallucinating. Is the life we think safe and secure true, or is there a second reality lurking? THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IN LIFE IS NOT BEING DEAD is a tale of betrayal and forgiveness in a rich musical universe, set against the Franco era, a period of political deceit and distorted reality in Spain. Playfully, the tragicomedy questions our perception of reality and the vulnerability of our human condition.
On the occasion of awarding the Cervantes Prize to the Catalan writer Juan Marsé on 23 April 2009, family members, friends and writers offer a sincere portrait of the best chronicler of life in Barcelona, Catalonia, during the post-war period and the worst days of the General Franco dictatorship, in the forties and fifties, and during the economic development and the hard conquest of freedom, in the sixties and seventies.
