QED

QED is ostensibly a drama about a marriage strained to breaking point in the wake of a devastating accident, but it is at its core a complex human rights issue that I couldn't shy away from once the story premise had been pitched to me by my co-writer/lead actor, who conceived the story premise inspired by personal experience.

Early in pre production, I made an aesthetic choice that I wanted the cinematography and production design to look beautiful at all times to juxtapose against the bleakness of the film's events. I also wanted to emphasise how Ali's life was pretty perfect otherwise and that even in her awful situation she still had the best of everything materially. But no amount of creature comforts, love or care is enough (for her) to compensate for her lack of freedom and autonomy.

The film touches on several themes including relational issues such as marriage, love and fidelity. We meet Jack and Ali, two characters very much in love - they are sporty, active, sexual - take all that away and their marriage as they knew it is destroyed, but their love remains. Agápē - a love that is prepared to sacrifice itself for a higher purpose. She loves him and so she doesn't want to condemn him to an entire lifetime of celibate care-taking. He loves her and wants to release her, but feels it's an impossible ask.

And so we come to the fundamental question posed by the film.... What won't love do?

Can you expect someone you love to suffer; to sacrifice their whole life to look after you; to commit to a lifetime of celibacy instead of the faithful marriage they signed up for; to live with your death on their conscience? Conversely can you expect someone you love to suffer a restricted life they don't want to endure? Are you able to physically end their suffering yourself, or not to intercede and let them die as they choose?

Can you set someone free even if it would destroy you?

This material has taken me to some dark and edgy places. It viscerally reminded me of watching my Grandad slowly deteriorate from Parkinson's until his perfectly acute mind was locked in a completely non functional body. That is the perspective I am approaching the film from - the horror of being a prisoner in your own body. As a society we are denying people their human rights in determining whether they do or don't want to live like that. Moreover, under the current laws in Ireland - which are the strictest in Europe - Jack would face 15 years imprisonment for agreeing to fulfil Ali's wishes.

The story as a whole is a prelude to that final dilemma. The film ultimately hinges on that 'what would you do?' moment. The euthanasia and assisted suicide argument is an extension of the pro-choice argument for autonomy over one's own body, even if you no longer have physical control over that body. It is a fundamental human rights issue that I believe will become more and more prevalent in our society as we live progressively longer.

That said, I wanted to take this issue out of the more conventional realm of elderly patients and examine it in context of a younger person who had been in the prime of life. Ali's character has perhaps four more decades to live out (instead of at most a few years) and if she considers her suffering to be unbearable, then is it not cruelty for society to force her to endure it?

An important caveat - this film does not attempt to provide a Universal answer for a highly complex issue, just to illuminate the journey of the individual character of Ali, who has made her decision, having played out all the scenarios in her mind's eye. She, as an individual, has reached her own - controversial and difficult - conclusion. Hence the title of the piece - Quod Erat Demonstrandum - QED.

One final objective I had very clearly going in to making this was to examine 'reader response theory'. The ending is deliberately ambiguous. I know some people will drop one way with it, and other people the opposite, it's so much to do with that individual's perspective and what they project on to it according to their own emotions, life experiences and ethics. There have already been some heated debates between crew members (even at the script stages) as to the ending. I leave it entirely to the individual viewer to interpret.

In fact my entire thesis with QED is about the individual's right to decide, not society's right to superimpose their decision onto an individual who's physically incapable of determining their own future. It's a hard and emotive subject but I think it is the role of art to shine a light on difficult topics and provoke discussion on what I believe will become a major human rights issue in the 21st Century.