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News, February 2005The Sea Inside nominated for an Oscar25th January. Alejandro Amenábar's controversial film The Sea Inside (in Spanish Mar Adentro) has been nominated for the Oscar for the best foreign language film, having previously been awarded numerous awards in Europe and America. Variously praised or condemned for its replay of the euthanasia of Spaniard Ramón Sampedro in 1998. The film, in which Javier Bardem portrays the quadraplegic Ramón Sampedro, tells the story of a man who wanted to put an end to his apparently meaningless life, full of suffering. Earlier this month, the author of the crime and personal carer of Sampedro in his last years, Ramona Maneiro, confessed. The investigation had found no proof of her guilt and now sufficient time has passed that technically she can no longer be prosecuted. Sampedro himself would have been physically unable to commit suicide. The film has been praised in many quarters for its portrayal of a very real problem issue. However, many Spanish evangelicals consider that it is a hymn of worship to death and a campaigning position in favour of euthanasia, which evangelicals (along with the Spanish law) condemn. The current government's social legislation programme could see a change in the law, however. Two other Spanish candidatures are for the make-up in The Sea Inside and for the short film 7.35 in the morning, by Nacho Vigalondo. |