Introduction 
The Impossible is a film about a British
family caught up in the Indian Ocean Tsunami of 2004, directed by
Spanish film director J.A. Bayona and released in 2012. It is based
on the true story of a Spanish family, the Alvarez Belóns, whose
detailed account provided by María Belón
Alvarez informed the making of the film at all stages.
Bayona has described the process he chose to create the Tsunami
scenes using digital effects and a huge water tank to replicate the
moments of chaos after the wave hits the beach resort in order to
make them as realistic as possible. He worked with real water
surges to destroy miniatures of the resort, while Naomi Watts and
Tom Holland, who play mother Maria and her son Lucas, filmed for
five weeks in the tank for the turbulent underwater scenes. The
film received much critical acclaim and prompted Simon Jenkins, a
British survivor of the Tsunami from the same beach resort, to
comment on its authenticity in a film blog entitled
The Impossible is ‘beautifully accurate’
written for The Guardian in January 2013, in
response to some criticism that the film didn’t focus on the
majority of local victims.
The Film
The Impossible opens with the Bennett
family on the plane to Thailand for Christmas.
When they arrive at the resort of Khao Lak they are
mildly disappointed to discover that they have not been given the
rooms that they had booked but then find that the replacement
beachside suite is much to their satisfaction. After celebrating
Christmas day with an exchange of presents there is no awareness of
how significant one of those gifts, a red ball, will become in the
events that follow. On Boxing Day, as the family are relaxing and
playing by the poolside there is a sudden change of atmosphere and
with almost no warning the scene is swamped by a ferocious wave.
The devastation that follows is powerfully experienced by the
viewer as mother Maria and her eldest son, Lucas are tossed around
beneath the water like rag dolls. Maria is seriously wounded, but
they manage to stay together and survive being swept inland. Lucas
finds himself having to find the strength required to become his
mother’s main support and with the help of some locals she is taken
to a hospital nearby. As this story is told there is no indication
of how the other family members have fared and the pain of not
knowing is brilliantly recreated in the midst of the most extreme
chaos that has been inflicted on the area. Then we see father Henry
(played by Ewan McGregor) searching the wreckage of the beachside,
calling for Maria and Lucas, until returning to the rubble of the
hotel where his two young sons are waiting. The emotional pain of
separation is palpable in all of the characters and at this stage
neither family group knows whether the other is alive or dead.
Henry then makes an agonisingly difficult decision to put his two
youngest sons in the care of the authorities for evacuation to
safety while he continues to search for Maria and Lucas in all of
the surrounding hospitals.
The remaining suspenseful scenes show how the
family are finally reunited at the hospital where Maria receives
life saving treatment. The film ends as they are evacuated by plane
to Singapore only then beginning to process the fact that they have
survived where so many others did not.
Relevance to the Field of Mental Health
The Impossible provides the viewer with
the vicarious experience of a sudden and serious life changing
event that is an immediate threat to life, placing us,
cinematically, under the Tsunami wave with Maria and Lucas. It also
presents a powerful portrait of the emotional consequences of
separation in the immediate aftermath of the disaster and provokes
the viewer to question what they would do in such a situation. The
harrowing portrait of survival against the odds offers an excellent
opportunity to explore the psychological consequences that such
traumas might cause in both the short and the long term. A good
article to read alongside a viewing of the film is called Early
mental health intervention after disasters by David A.
Alexander, published in
Advances in Psychiatric Treatment (2005)
11:12-18. In it the author examines the factors
that may play a part in determining the ability of survivors to
cope with the impact of such events and notes that very few people
display overt psychopathology in the immediate period after a
disaster.
The Impossible is not a comfortable film
to watch, although with the knowledge that it is based on true
events, it is hugely compelling and involves a significant
emotional commitment by the viewer. This is an important film for
anyone working in mental health to see, especially for anyone who
may work with people affected by sudden trauma or who have been
caught up in a disaster.
• More information about The Impossible
can be found at IMDB
as can a short trailer.
• The Impossible can be purchased from
amazon.co.uk.
• Minds on Film is written by Consultant
Psychiatrist, Dr Joyce Almeida
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