The Sea Inside

Ramón Sampedro has been a quadriplegic confined to his bed for 26 years in the Galician village of Porto do Son. Clear-minded, ironic, and fully aware of his existence, Ramón has spent years fighting legally for the right to die with dignity. Alejandro Amenábar's film reconstructs his final years and his relationships with Julia, a lawyer with a degenerative illness who shares his struggle, and Rosa, a factory worker who tries to convince him to keep living. Javier Bardem won the Goya Award and the Venice Film Festival's Volpi Cup.

The Sea Inside is the bravest film in modern Spanish cinema about dignity and the right to decide. Javier Bardem transforms Ramón Sampedro into one of European cinema's most iconic characters. Filmed with the delicacy the subject deserved.