Amenabar film wins Silver Lion award

13 September 2004

VENICE- “Mar Adentro” (The Sea Inside), a story of a paralysed man who wants to commit suicide by Spanish director Alejandro Amenabar, won the jury grand prize Silver Lion award at the Venice film festival, it was reported Monday.

 “Mar Adentro” (Out to Sea) pulls no punches in telling the story of Ramon Sampedro but yet manages the trick of being an uplifting film about illness and death.

After losing a long battle in the Spanish court system for the legal right to assisted suicide, Sampedro committed suicide in 1998 after the publication of his book “Letters from Hell.”

Spain’s Javier Bardem won the best actor award at the Venice festival for his portrayal of Sampedro.

But the film has sparked controversy in Spain with disabled groups saying it did nothing to help the image of tetraplegics.

[Copyright EFE with Expatica]

Subject: Spanish news