|
| Hjemme/Home Om Dictum/About Dictum Redaksjon/Editors For bidragsytere/For contributors Arkiv/Archive |
|
|
PDF VERSION
ON DEATH AND DIGNITY – MAR ADENTRO/ THE SEA INSIDE Padre Francisco: «Freedom
without a life is not
freedom.» Ramón Sampedro: «A life
without freedom is not
a life.» FILM REVIEW BY WHAT IS A
DIGNIFIED life? And who has the right to decide what it is? Alejandro
Amenábar’s film «Mar adentro» (English title: «The Sea Inside
«) raises these questions based on the real life story of Ramón
Sampedro
who at the age of 25 became paralysed from the neck down after a diving
accident.
For 30 years he fought the authorities in court for «Life as a right,
not
a duty» in order to get the right to die assisted by his friends, since
he
was unable to take his own life. However, he lost the trial, and hence
the
right to die by active euthanasia. In 1998 he died, aided by friends in
a
process where the contribution of each was so small that none of those
involved
could be charged with murder. Thus, he won a fight for his dignity,
despite
loosing a principled legal battle. AS A FILM
about active euthanasia, this is a surprisingly vivacious story.
Paradoxically,
the main character is a source of energy to the people around him: his
brother,
the brother’s wife and son whom he lives with and who take care of him,
his
lawyer Julia who also suffers from a chronic degenerating illness, and
the
unemployed single mother Rosa, who lives in the village and who in the
end
helps him to arrange his own death. The interplay between these persons
is
rendered in a nuanced way. Even the closest supporters of Ramón
Sampedro want
to give him a desire to live rather than assisting him in taking his
own life,
and find it difficult to accept his decision. In the end, some do,
others do
not. In one of the film’s most striking scenes Ramón is visited
by a priest who
also suffers from paralysis from the neck down. The priest tries to
convince
Ramón that life can be valuable even when one is not able to
move, and that
judging its value is not down to oneself. Since the priest is unable to
ascend
the stairs with his wheelchair, the discussion between the two is at
first
mediated by a round-eyed, young boy who runs up and down the stairs,
thereafter
by the two debaters shouting to one another. Sampedro argues his case
well, and
the priest has to leave the house without having achieved his goal. The
scene
exemplifies how the film is amusing without losing seriousness. It is
carried
out with a sensitivity that enables jokes on very serious themes
without
becoming trivial, and without ever losing the main character’s point of
view
from sight. JAVIER
BARDEM plays very well the main character with a highly expressive face
and
nuanced low-tuned acting. He renders Sampedro as someone whose charm
and wit
attracts people, while he tests them at the same time and forces them
to see
the seriousness of his intensions. Julia, the lawyer, and the main
character
develop a deep understanding and love for one another. She discovers
the poems
he has written, with the pen held in his mouth, and insists on having
them
published. She promises him that on the day that the first printed copy
is
ready, she will take his life and then her own. However, she changes
her mind
and mails the book to him without seeing him again. While Ramón
Sampedro
chooses assisted suicide, the lawyer Julia chooses a slow process of
physical
and mental dissolution, involving paralysis and loss of memory. The
question
posed to the viewers is whether we are able to accept the choices of
both. The
film is hereby highly recommended.
Copyright © 2005 Dictum.no ISSN 1504-5307 |