Hispania

Spanish filmmakers Alejándro Amenábar, Antonio Naharro, and Álvaro Pastor have recently focused on disability and personal identity by presenting the disabled subject in the foreground and by posing an array of ethical questions. This essay explores representations of disability as they appear in Mar adentro and Yo, también and contrasts each film’s argument about human will, authenticity, and the larger political agenda of tolerance and acceptance. In Amenábar’s film, disability is presented as an obstacle to personal will and identity, which, for the protagonist, must be eliminated through destruction of the body. For Pastor and Naharro, disability is a fully normal state, which need neither generate rejection nor suppose any kind of obstacle to societal integration. Disability therefore constitutes a personal identity to be embraced in this film.