Invitation to a Suicide
In the tradition of absurdist black comedies like the classic Harold and Maude, Invitation to a Suicide is about a man selling tickets to his own suicide to save his father's life. Raised in an insular Polish immigrant neighborhood in Brooklyn where his only future would be as a poor baker like his father, Kaz Malek attempts to steal from a Russian mobster and run away. Not cut out for a life of crime, he ends up owing $10,000 to the mobster instead, who threatens to kill his father if he doesn't pay. Unable to pay or face his father's death, Kaz comes up with a novel plan: he'll hang himself and sell tickets to the show. He'd rather be a dead hero than a living loser with the guilt of his father's death hanging over his head. Kaz is surprised to find both the mobster and the neighborhood extremely supportive of this idea, not to mention his father. But even if he can sell the tickets will he really go through with it? By the time this dark comedy reaches its surprising conclusion, Kaz learns that sometimes embracing death is the only way to a better life.