Spanish film The Sea Inside

Yesterday Alejando Amenábar and Javier Bardem won the European best director and best actor respectively for their latest film The Sea Inside. The film was voted best film in the last Venice Film Festival, and Bardem won the best actor award there too. Many film critics are predicting an oscar for best foreign film and the subtitled version was released in the US last week.

The Sea Inside is based on a true story about the paraplegic, Ramon Sampedro who became a household name in Spain because of his long campaign to be granted the right to end his own life and whose requests to do so were repeatedly denied by the Spanish government. Sampedro's family collaborated with the film-makers, and the outcome is a wonderful film which manages to convey two apparantly contradictory messages - a celebration of life itself, and the right of a persona to choose to end it.

Amenábar directs the film with flair and confidence, and the beauty of some of the scenes showing the Galician coast is often breathtaking. The music is beautiful and the acting is excellent, especially Javier Bardem who plays the part of Ramon. It is certainly a film worth seeing.

See the trailer of The Sea Inside.

Related article: The Sea Inside wins Oscar.