A Woman's Tale
Clip 3: ‘Life is beautiful’
2 min 36 sec
Taken from the feature A Woman's Tale (1991)
Original title classification not known – this clip chosen to be M
Availability of the complete title
Curator’s clip description
Marta (Sheila Florance) is dying. She has locked the door on her son and the landlord, but she allows Anna (Gosia Dobrowolska) into the flat. Anna gives Marta a dose of morphine, rather than see her taken back to hospital. The inference is that it kills her.
Curator’s notes
A Woman’s Tale was made in 1991, four years before the Northern Territory passed its short-lived legislation to allow voluntary euthanasia (overturned by the federal government in 1997). Nevertheless, the film advances a strong argument in favour of a right to death, albeit in a very controversial manner. Anna’s injection is given without Marta having asked for it, or any unambiguous evidence that that is what she wants (although there is a clear suggestion that it is). It is Anna’s decision alone, based on her love for her friend and her regard for her wishes – to die in her own bed, rather than in hospital. This would not be a position that any pro-euthanasia groups would endorse, but the film isn’t making a political argument – more an emotional one, about the bonds and responsibilities of friendship.
Paul Byrnes, curator
