A Note of Regret ...

My favorite film was sadly overlooked by the international jury: Isabel Coixet’s My Life Without Me (Canada/Spain). The story of a young mother who, knowing her days are numbered, keeps her fate secret from her family and compiles things to do before she dies. I share the opinion of my colleague Hans-Günther Dicks in Film & TV Kameramann: »Just imagine how Hollywood would have handled such a theme! A dripping melodrama or, worse, a heart-rending tale that squeezes a happy end out of a tragedy. Not however in the hands of writer-director Isabel Coixet. Her Ann, played by the talented Sarah Polley with subtle nuance, is neither a victim to be pitied, nor is she an angry rebel railing against her fate. Rather, she is simply a woman who consciously lives her shortened life to the fullest. Still, her last deeds, her last wishes, reflect just how dismally uneventful her existence has actually been. In the end, she has not only helped those close to her to bear the pain, but ourselves too. It’s a crying shame Coixet’s little masterpiece was overlooked by the jury.«

Dorothea Moritz