Educational Media Reviews Online

A Susan Sontag quote features prominently in the film, Life Interrupted: “Illness is the night-side of life, a more onerous citizenship. Everyone who is born holds dual citizenship, in the kingdom of the well and in the kingdom of the sick.” As the three women with breast cancer can attest in this frank, detailed examination of their arduous journeys through the “kingdom of the sick,” it is a passage that none of them would have chosen. Yet they each found their way with increasing strength and a fierce yearning to survive. A common source of their strength was found in human connections, whether among family, community members, religious leaders, the support of other breast cancer patients, or all of the above.

Among the young women with breast cancer especially, it seems particularly important to share and learn from personal stories of other young breast cancer patients. In the course of Life Interrupted, we learn about young women just starting to realize their potential abruptly forced to confront an array of intimidating and life-altering decisions about their health. The individual portraits are skillfully interwoven with each other, interspersed with animated illustrations of procedures and interviews with family members and other patients.

The whole of the work is revealed, despite the prevalence of the personal breast cancer memoir, as a fresh and fearless exploration of this “kingdom” in all its peaks and valleys. Recommended.