A subterranean quadriplegic fights for the right to a dignified death for three agonizingly continuous decades; wrestling fearlessly despite his benumbed body for a freedom that eliminates life, from a life that abolishes freedom. The Sea Inside is director Alejandro Amenábar’s powerful 2006 Oscar winning film; one that delivers the darkness and luster of an excruciating life awaiting its relieving end. Based on a true life story of Ramon Sampedro, a traveling sailor who was paralyzed neck down after a deathlike accident, The Sea Inside gives a stirring account of a man’s appeal for the right to release from his crippled life, disabled love, claustrophobic surrounding, and free-flowing imagination.

Cosmically played by leading Spanish actor Javier Bardem, Sampedro intrepidly appears in television programs and debates with moralistically opposing priests, emphasizing on his petition for legal euthanasia – one that will grant him deliverance from his vegetative state and allow for a death with dignity. Ramon’s assorted family tends to him in their modest household, with their quiet affection and dutiful care. His resigned father Joaquin (Joan Dalmau), dedicated sister-in-law Manuela (Mabel Rivera), naïve nephew Javi (Tamar Novas) and unyielding brother Jose (Celso Bugallo) are perfunctorily attached to him, and powerlessly respectful of his decision to fight his agonizing life, for an alleviating death.

But emulating his familial relationships are his tender bonds with two benign women who propel Ramon’s immobilized presence, by loving him unreservedly. Julia (Belén Rueda) a sensitive lawyer fights for his fatal cause delicately, understanding his intimate longings and philosophies, through the catalyst of her own deteriorating illness. She publishes his exquisite dreams, intense desires, and grueling loneliness in the clear pages of The Sea Inside, a gift of his strong voice to the world before she slips into the evaporating sands of time herself. Rosa (Lola Dueñas) a single mother, crestfallen by men and life, traces the preciousness of her own existence through Ramon’s beaming bright smile and enigmatic convictions. She spends her days striving to inspire in Ramon a will to live and keep her alive, before she is strengthened to help him in his freedom - by comprehending the love Ramon teaches her, one that is profound and selfless. Enervated by institutional laziness and the insensitivity of religious, political and legal consciences, Ramon is finally and illegally given the respite of his sweet, beloved death.

A box up of immaculate cinematography by Javier Aguirresarobe, perfect performance by Javier Bardem and spotless direction by Alejandro Amenábar , The Sea Inside is a moving anecdote that comes, paradoxically from a stock-still man and stands for his ocean of sublime dreams and fantasies - Those that ascend like violent waves, and merge again with the sea’s infinite vastness in Ramon, a man who infects optimism and life despite his own disability and despair. A man whose invisible resignation and palpable courage makes even his death seem like a new and serene life.

The film reinforces powerfully, those prevalent questions that are conflictingly sad and unsettling - Is it better to die with pride than live in powerless stagnation? Is it perfectly moral to behold a vegetative life for obstinate laws and selfish sentiments, but decadently unreasonable to battle for a liberating fatality? Does the gift of a dynamic death surpass the preservation of an inert life?

Watch the film, irrespective of what your belief - and you will be traversed to passionately take the scarcer stand.

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