The film Breathe (Breathing), directed by Andy Serkis in 2017 was for me, the second most beautiful film of El Gouna Festival After the Franco-Lebanese film The insult by Zyad Doueiri.
It is a British feature film produced by Jonathan Cavendish in tribute to his two parents Robin (Andrew Garfield) and Diana (Claire Foy) Cavendish.
I was dazzled by the film and above all surprised. Astonished by the reactions of some towards situations which today are completely commonplace and which were not a few decades ago. And it is also one of the strengths of this film which shows somewhere that humanity evolves. A few decades ago, the sight of people with reduced mobility walking in a wheelchair could shock. This is no longer the case today …
Breathe – Robin and Diana Cavendish
This film tells the true story of a young beautiful, healthy, loving, happy couple … They met, loved each other, married, were happy, waited for their first child … And all of a sudden, misfortune, the husband is suffering from polio, an incurable disease which leaves him completely paralyzed and being able to breathe only thanks to a device to which he will have to remain attached.
This 28 -year -old young man, who was full of vitality, finds himself overnight imprisoned in a hospital bed, wishing only one and only thing: to die.
Die. Leave this body which no longer obeys him. Leave this useless body. Leaving this life which is no longer… .. but it was counting without the love and determination of your wife. She will fight to make him leave the hospital and take him home, despite all the obstacles that stand on her way.
Breathe – Robin, on his hospital bed
While the doctors barely gave him a few months to live, this young man will live for years, live fully, and enjoy his family, his friends, travel, participate in conferences, and even change the lives of hundreds of thousands of people.
Indeed, when Robin found himself disabled, the fate that was reserved for the sick as was to be locked up in a hospital and extinguish themselves gradually.
But his wife will decide otherwise. She brings him out and takes him home. There, already for him, life is milder. He has a family and social life. He is with his wife and son and friends visit him. Which will positively influence his state of health.
Breathe – Robin, at home, surrounded by his family and friends
His wife devotes himself body and soul for him, and gradually tries to find practical solutions to ensure better living conditions. She is helped in this by her inventor brother, handyman and professor at the University of Oxford. It is thus for example that a system is put in place to allow Robin to read his journal, a kind of alarm system allows him to attract attention if his respiratory system disconnects or even just to call a person, another system is also put in place to allow him to take his bed in the garden while remaining connected to his respiratory system…. Until the day Robin has a bright idea. And so in 1962, with his friend Teddy Hall, they developed a wheelchair with an integrated respirator who finally released Robin from his confinement to his bed.
His life is transformed. From now on, he will be able to go out, move, travel….
How was this invention received by each other?
At his first outing in the London streets, people were amazed, but some were shocked: why inflict our sight of these disabled, their place is in the hospital and not among us!
BREATHE – thanks to this new invention, Polio patients can finally move
Doctors also started by refusing this invention. They did not believe it. No, that couldn’t work, no patients should not leave hospitals!
But the couple is stubborn. The invention is presented to doctors in Germany, same refusal …
But the couple perseveres and will help improve the living conditions of the disabled.
With the help of activists, they will have rolling chairs adapted to polio patients, they will persuade the British Ministry of Health to finance a series of chairs manufactured by Teddy Hall …
Robin Cavendish died on August 8, 1994 at the age of 64 becoming a medical phenomenon as one of the oldest survivors in Polio in Great Britain. The doctors had given him a few weeks or even a few months, he will have survived 36 years to the disease.
Robin Cavendish and his son Jonathan
As said above, Breathe is a very beautiful film. Has more than one title.
Cinematographically, the images are beautiful, the shimmering colors are bearing hope, the actors are good, particularly Andrew Garfield who, immobilized throughout the whole film, had to put all his game in the expressions of his face.
The message of the film is also beautiful: with love, you can move mountains. And that’s what this young couple did. Love and perseverance. And confidence in each other.
Breathe! Breathe! Finally, love also allows you to breathe!
“I don’t just want to survive, I really want to live,” said Robin, and thanks to Diana’s love, he lived!
Neïla Driss
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