Two days before Christmas one year, Caroline was told she had developed breast cancer and, when she asked her options she was told that the only way to stop the spread of cancer from her right breast was to have a mastectomy.
This short film looks at her feelings and fears from the point of knowing about the operation to where she must try to come to terms with what she has lost.
I had no idea what this film was about when I sat down to watch it and, if I had, I'm not sure I would have tried it. As still a young man my view of body is one of sexuality and to have it disfigured takes away from that. However, for this very reason I'm glad I did watch it because Caroline goes through very similar stages and is very honest on camera about her feelings.
For the most part it is very intimate, frightening and moving the most touching moment being where Caroline is brutally honest about her regret that she never got to use her breasts for feeding a child. The direction is a mix of interview set-ups but also touches of style in camera movement and animation.
Overall this is a great little film and viewers should not be put off by the subject matter. Happily (hopefully) the majority of us will not have to experience mastectomy either first or second hand in real life but it is part of life and it is interesting and a learning experience to hear Caroline be so honest about it to the camera. It is sobering, frightening and slightly cheering even if the plot summary will put off more viewers than it wins.
This short film looks at her feelings and fears from the point of knowing about the operation to where she must try to come to terms with what she has lost.
I had no idea what this film was about when I sat down to watch it and, if I had, I'm not sure I would have tried it. As still a young man my view of body is one of sexuality and to have it disfigured takes away from that. However, for this very reason I'm glad I did watch it because Caroline goes through very similar stages and is very honest on camera about her feelings.
For the most part it is very intimate, frightening and moving the most touching moment being where Caroline is brutally honest about her regret that she never got to use her breasts for feeding a child. The direction is a mix of interview set-ups but also touches of style in camera movement and animation.
Overall this is a great little film and viewers should not be put off by the subject matter. Happily (hopefully) the majority of us will not have to experience mastectomy either first or second hand in real life but it is part of life and it is interesting and a learning experience to hear Caroline be so honest about it to the camera. It is sobering, frightening and slightly cheering even if the plot summary will put off more viewers than it wins.