EU FILM FESTIVAL – Spanish Contribution

19 and 20 May, 7pm
National Cinema Centre, 87 Lang Ha, Hanoi

The Embassy of Spain in Hanoi has the pleasure of inviting you to the European Film Festival that will take place in Hanoi from May 11th to May 21st, coinciding with the celebration of Europe Days in Vietnam.

Spain presents the movie “The secret life of words”, by Isabel Coixet.

The tickets are free of charge and can be collected at the Embassy of Spain and at the cultural centres while they last.

The secret life of words

Director: Isabel Coixet
Production: 2005
Producer: Pedro Almodóvar, Esther García
Starring: Sarah Polley, Tim Robbins, Julie Christie

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The movie portrays the fragile remains of a torture survivor, Hanna (Sarah Polley) from the Bosnian conflict. A burn unit nurse by training, she has gone through a counselling center in Copenhagen where her torture was documented by Inge (Julie Christie), and then made her way to work in Great Britain in a factory.

She has post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms, including compulsive behavior (stacks of bars of soap), is hearing impaired (nearly deaf without a hearing aid on) and lives her life completely alone, attending to work every day, taking no sick leave or holidays. The union complains so she is directed to take a holiday.

She goes to a seacoast village and overhears an oil company manager discussing the need for a live-in nurse for a burned oil platform worker on site in the North Sea. She volunteers to help, and begins to care for Josef (Tim Robbins) who is temporarily blind and has face and arm burns from fighting a rig fire.

He coaxes her story of torture from her, feeling the cuts scars on her chest in a remarkably poignant moment of truth. After he is transferred to hospital, she goes back to the factory. He talks to Inge and realizes the depth of suffering and the guilt of torture victims who survive. A moving love story, beautifully done, and unforgettable character development, and a happy ending (if there can be one).