Starring: Javier Bardem, Belén Rueda, Lola Dueñas
Directed by: Alejandro Amenábar
Released: 2004/2005
Since becoming a student of the Spanish language, I had been eagerly awaiting the release of “Mar adentro”, The Sea Inside. Due to a hectic schedule over the last month or so, I had thought I had missed out on it at the megaplexes, but the Rosalie Cinebar has proven to be my savior. My hunger to see this movie did not prove unsatisfied, as I was treated to perhaps one of most moving and complex dramas ever to float past my eyes. When Alejandro Amenábar, best known in western cinema for “The Others”, finished turning the pages of ‘Letters From Hell’, an autobiographical depiction of Ramón Sampedro’s wish to die, he was inspired to inject Sampedro’s tragedy into the social consciousness.
The Sea Inside is the story of former fisherman and adventurer, Sampedro, damnation to a bed stricken life of being hardly able to move, after breaking his neck diving into a shallow pool by the sea. Sampedro’s ‘hell’ is being bound to his bed, cared for by his close knit family and a ‘harem’ of women, all who love him, drawing inspiration and perspective from him, and a reason to exist. This plays a clever paradox - his family and friends desire to see him live yet at the same time wanting to respect his desire to die, despite the huge personal and social pressure to prevent his suicidal ascension. Sampedro is a brilliant and charismatic writer and a master of rhetoric which, one would assume, provide a reason to stay in this life. Yet Ramón only hope is the cold forgiving silence of a death that waits. His life is a purgatory, his death - utopia.
Amenábar’s treatment of the true life story is visionary. Despite the very apparent political and social undertones of Sampedro’s wish to die, Amenábar chooses instead to focus on a more emotive level, drawing a more gripping and sympathetic response from the viewer. Strong performances by all cast members make this story extremely moving. At several times during the viewing, I caught myself on the precipice of weeping. Sampedro’s ability to ‘fly to the sea’ makes the viewer realise that their own ability to ‘exist’ and be a non-handicapped human being is grossly taken for granted. I always viewed euthanasia with a great deal of skepticism, but this story makes a strong moral case for acceptance. Not only that, but the film instills a very poignant sense of our own mortality.
My meager words cannot do this film justice. I can only urge everyone to see this great work of pure beauty, before it’s too late. The fact I bothered to type out my thoughts on the film speaks volumes of the film’s quality. In short, one of the best film’s I’ve ever been lucky enough to see.
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