A beautifully crafted and soul stirring exploration into a profound experience beyond our earthly realm, After Death is a must watch for anyone who asks the question: what happens after we die?

After Death opens with a shot of the cosmos. Beautiful, mysterious, and ethereal, it just might be the closest thing we mere mortals think Heaven might look like. According to those who have experienced Heaven firsthand, though, the cosmos is but a stick figure drawing compared to a Rembrandt.

Near Death Experience (or NDE) is the topic at heart in After Death, and it’s a documentary as emotional as it is fascinating. Directed by Stephen Gray, After Deah is also very cinematic, where even the interview footage pops off the screen thanks to cinematographer Austin Straub.

Just as impressive are the visual recreations of the experiences which the varied men and women in the documentary had while crossing over to the afterlife. Recreating such an experience visually is a tall order, especially when one NDE witness says, “there is no earthly words that do it justice”. The makers of After Death attempt to do so, and it is truly a wonder how an independent production could pull off such exquisite imagery.

The testimony from those who lived to tell the world of their near death experience is incredibly profound. Some speak of immense feelings of love and beauty; others of the majesty of being in the presence of God and all the immense awe it entails. Others were not so fortunate and spoke of the horrors of Hell and the pain and suffocating that comes with such an experience.

A varied roster of scientists – ranging from cardiologists to neurologists – explain the NDE phenomenon through their end of the spectrum. Once sceptics of NDE, there is now a shared agreement that something has happened to these people who have witnessed and touched a realm beyond creation.

There is an overwhelming sense of awe to what Gray has done here. After Death is not the first film to tackle NDE, nor will it be the last. It would be hard pressed, though, to find a better example of the marriage between style and substance that After Death displays; a documentary that brings a tear to the eye and warmth to the soul.