I Am Breathing

There have been several films chronicling the final months of someone suffering from a terminal illness since Peter Friedman and Tom Joslin's Silverlake Life (1992), but Emma Davie and Morag McKinnon's record of 34-year-old Neil Platt's brave fight against motor neurone disease is by far the most honest and poignant. Determined to savour his dwindling time with Scottish wife Louise, toddler son Oscar and widowed mother Lynne, the Yorkshire-born architect also feels a duty to share his experiences with those similarly afflicted and their carers. Thus, he uses some hilariously unreliable voice-recognition software to write a blog, in which he makes no attempt to hide his frustrations and mood swings, while also celebrating the moments of amusement and comfort that sustain his spirits. But there's no soft soap or melodrama here. This really is a matter of life and death, and the courage shown by Neil and the devoted and wondrously patient Louise is not only humbling, but also genuinely moving and quietly heroic.