Alejandro Almenábar’s Mar Adentro (”The Sea Inside”) is a movie set in the region of Galicia in the north western corner of Spain, famous for its gorgeous scenery and fantastic food and drink, particularly its seafood. This stormy euthanasia saga netted the best foreign-language film Oscar at the 77th-annual Academy Awards in 2005.
The film, based on the true story of Ramon Sampedro, a quadriplegic former ship mechanic who’s three-decade struggle after an accident left him almost completely paralysed culminated in his taking his own life in 1998 at the age of 55 with the help of close associates. The movie has proved a smash hit but also provoked a massive debate in Spain about the morality of euthanasia.
Javier Bardem’s portrayal of Sampedro has held millions of cinemagoers transfixed as he plays out a man’s losing battle in the Spanish court system for the legal right to an assisted suicide and a dignified death. The movie was filmed in Sampedro’s northwestern home region of Galicia, and throughout around 10 weeks of filming Bardem doggedly insisted on staying in character and remaining bed-bound between takes.
The original plan for the production was to build the house in Galicia in the best landscape available. The exterior locations were found in the area of Xuño in Galicia, always within a radius very close to where Ramón lived. In order to give variety to the visual style of the film, Amenábar chose locations in Barcelona to serve as a counter to Galicia, giving a visual interplay between urban and rural Spain.
Shooting began in Galicia in July of 2003 and continued for three months. At their arrival, some of the actors had the chance to meet the real people they were going to play. The movie, uplifting despite its twin themes of illness and death, had already picked up a flurry of awards in Spain before it was short listed for the Oscar awards.
In winning the Oscar, ‘The Sea Inside’ left renowned Oscar-winning Spanish director Pedro Almodovar’s out. Almodovar’s “Bad Education” failed to pick up any awards, leading the director to quit the Spanish Film Academy in a row over voting procedures. ‘The Sea Inside’ also won the Silver Lion award at the ‘Venice International Film Festival’.
Months ago, art met reality as a Spanish woman admitted to assisting in Sampedro’s suicide, prompting a judicial probe. The Galician branch of the Association for the Right to Die with Dignity told that it would back Ramona Maneiro all the way after she admitted in a television interview that she had helped Sampedro end his days by taking cyanide.
This movie is a good way to know the Galician region in Spain. All its four provinces, A Coruña, Ourense, Pontevedra, and Lugo have a lot of interest for visitors. However, Galicia’s stellar city is the ancient pilgrimage destination of Santiago de Compostela. As well, the ‘Way of Saint James’ in Galicia is even more intense than in other parts of Spain and Romanesque architecture abounds. Castles and local palaces called ‘Pazos’ are plentiful, and the Celtic towns called castroes are found everywhere. In addition, there are dozens of prehistoric dolmens, locally called mámoas.
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