THE SEA INSIDE (MAR ADENTRO) Galas

Alejandro Amenabar (best known for his dealings with life and death in films like THE OTHERS and OPEN YOUR EYES) returns with the beautifully rendered and realized THE SEA INSIDE, the true story of Spaniard Ramon Sampedro (played quite brilliantly with gentle humor and fiery defiance by Javier Bardem), who, after being paralyzed in a diving accident from the neck down, spends 30 years fighting the Spanish legal system and public opinion for the right to die with dignity. The film is Spain’s official Oscar® selection for Best Foreign Language Film.

When two women enter his life-lawyer Julia (Belen Rueda), who helps him prepare a forthcoming legal case, and Rosa (Lola Duenas), a local radio host trying to convince him that life is worth living-Sampedro’s single-minded right to die is challenged, even as he plans to arrange matters so that nobody can be accused of helping him commit suicide.

Northern Spain’s Galician coast provides the magnificent setting where Sampedro is cared for by his stoic farming family, in a house in the lush countryside not far from the sea where the accident occurred-a sea that he can now only occasionally smell from his bedroom window, or sometimes fly above when his dreams allow.