High School Program: The Sea Inside

The High School Programme (HSP) segment of the Educational Program was once again held this year in its predominant format: a central screening (this time at the Cultural Information Centre – Skopje) was organized for students from Skopje, while students from other cities had the opportunity to watch the selected film in their respective schools. 
This year, in collaboration with the Embassy of the Kingdom of Spain in Skopje, the selected film for the video reading was:

The Sea Inside
(Mar Adentro, 2004)
dir. Alejandro Amanábar, ES, IT, 126’

Ramón lived a quiet life with his family on the beautiful Galician coast. When a diving accident rendered him quadriplegic, he fought a 28-year campaign to win the right to end his life with dignity. This is the story of Ramón, and two women who wanted to convince him that life is worth living.

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The screening took place on April 10th in the presence of students from several high schools in Skopje: SUGS “Orce Nikolov”, SUGS “Josip Broz – Tito”, SGGUGS “Zdravko Cvetkovski”, DSULUD “Lazar Ličenoski”, DMBUC “Ilija Nikolovski – Luj”, as well as students from the Kocho Racin Gymnasium in Veles.
Following the film, a short analysis of its connections with this year’s topic for the Best Fil(m)osophical Essay Contest was presented by our expert associate Viktor Jovanoski. The topic that students were invited to write about under the mentorship of their teachers was: “Death as a right, life as a duty: What does it mean to live/die with dignity?”

Throughout April, screenings of the film were also held in schools in about twenty other cities across Macedonia: Bitola, Vinica, Gevgelija, Debar, Delchevo, Kavadarci, Kriva Palanka, Krushevo, Kumanovo, Makedonska Kamenica, Negotino, Ohrid, Probishtip, Radovish, Sveti Nikole, Struga, Strumica, and Shtip. Our estimates show that approximately 800 students participated in this activity. By the set deadline (May 4th), around twenty students submitted their essays. The three best essays will be selected by a three-member jury consisting of Aleksandar Stamatov, Marija Todoroska, and Nikola Stojkoski.

The award ceremony will take place at a special event in the Ceremonial Hall of the Faculty of Philosophy on June 5th at 12:00 PM.

The three awarded students will receive:
– A one-year scholarship from the University of Audiovisual Arts “Europa Prima”
– Financial awards
– Gift packages from the Spanish Embassy in Skopje
– Sets of philosophical books and magazines from the publishing house “Az-Buki” and the Philosophical Society of Macedonia
– A collection of Macedonian films from the Cinematheque of N. Macedonia.

As in previous years, the winning essay will be published in the autumn issue of the magazine Philosophical Tribune.