What happens when you want to die, but
can't?
What happens when you want to live, but can't?
Sarah wanted to die - but didn't quite make it. Trapped in
a body paralysed by immobility and silence, Sarah wants to
live - but can't quite make it.
Signs of Life is an intimate film about the will to live
and the power of thought and feelings in that process.
Told entirely from the perspective of the central
character, Sarah Ives, this is the moving story of a young
woman trapped in a body diagnosed as being in a persistent
vegetative state. Yet she can perceive what is going on
around her, but is unable to intervene, to explain or to
express her feelings. An attempted suicide has put her into
this state; though she now finds herself wanting to live
more than ever. However, the medical consensus around her
is gradually persuading Sarah's distraught mother that her
daughter is, for all intents and purposes, dead. There is
talk of permissions to donate organs, even talk of applying
to the Courts to secure a passage to 'death with dignity'
in the name of Sarah's 'quality of life'.
Sarah is unable to be part of this in any way, unable to
intervene and demonstrate that she is very much alive, or
to express her changing feelings towards her mother, with
whom she has had a troubled relationship. There seems
little chance of some sort of reconciliation between them.
However, the film is about Sarah's unusual discoveries and
realisations, which eventually help her in her struggle.
