"Mar Adentro" - "The Sea Inside"

Released: 2004
Director: Alejandro Almenábar
Cast: Javier Bardem; Belén Rueda; Lola Dueñas;

The back of the DVD box says this film, “...celebrates the nature of freedom and love, and the mystery and beauty of life.” Well, I've certainly read worse blurbs; at least this one seems to have been written by somebody who's actually watched the film. But while I agree with the description, I'd have to add another word: pride. And in Spain, it's not a big step from pride to machismo. Still, more on that later. First, some context.

According to IMDB, Mar Adentro won 61 awards around the world (and of course, was nominated for even more). Perhaps most famously, it won an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film but more impressive is the board-sweeping that took place at the Goyas: 14 awards, including Best Film, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director, Best Cinematography, you name it. So, quite highly thought of then, but what's it about?

The film is based on the true story of Ramón Sampedro, a Galician who spent almost 30 years fighting for the right to die after an accident left him paralysed from the neck down. We meet Ramón when he's in his fifties, long-used to the inevitable limitations of his situation and – in all practical ways – adapted to it. However, Ramón is adamant that for him this is no life worth living and he rationally, clearly and relentlessly argues and demands his right to die with dignity. He's aided by Gené, from a euthanasia lobbying group; Julia, a lawyer with a personal interest in the issues; Rosa, a local woman who is drawn to his plight; and his elder brother's family, with whom he lives and who are his primary carers.

The film focuses on Ramón's relationship with Julia and Rosa both of whom are attracted to him in different ways and for different reasons. As these relationships play out simultaneously we see what sort of man Ramón is. Given the film's subject, journey's end is fairly inevitable but it's the route taken that draws us in without mercy.

Ramón is a man who still loves life, but not the one he's got. He's made a firm decision that he will not accept the fragments of the existence left to him. This decision is ruthlessly adhered to by suppressing all memory of his past self and also any possibility of fulfilment in the present. The consequence is that he finds it difficult to take any happiness that may be offered him. This is where the pride comes in: Ramón is proud enough not to settle for less having once lived life to the full. His pride enables him to live (and die) with dignity despite everything. However, that same pride has prevented him from fully accepting any moments of joy, happiness, triumph, etc. along the way. He may have enjoyed them at the time, but he then boxes them away, never to be reopened lest they undermine his resolve. We see instances when Julia and Rosa's presence in his life enable Ramón to acknowledge that life can be precious, under any circumstances, but he never truly wavers.

Meanwhile, all around him are people who love, support and care for him (each in their own way) and yet who all have their own personal agendas, conscious or no. Whether it's his brother's moral resentment, his sister-in-law's maternal possessiveness, his nephew's need for a better father figure or Ramón's own father's dementia-fuelled denial, they all demonstrate utterly real responses to the responsibility that they cannot shirk.

Ultimately, Ramón is a charismatic and likeable protagonist and we, the audience are sucked into the moral dilemma. Namely, that we like him, we admire him and we want him to succeed but for Ramón, success means killing himself, so by wishing him well we are also wishing him dead.

A tightly-written, brilliantly-acted (the whole cast is superb and Bardem has possibly never looked more convincing) drama of human frailty and determination centred on a huge moral question. A question, by the way, to which Mar Adentro is unafraid to give a clear answer.

P.S. What is it with these translated titles? Yes, “mar” means “sea” and “adentro” means “inside”, but the phrase “mar adentro” actually translates as “out at sea” which – I beg to suggest – is symbolically quite different.