Triage (2009)

Christopher Lee: Joaquín Morales

Photos 

Quotes 

• Joaquín Morales : [Mark has just talked of an early experience as a war photographer involving a young boy's murder]  Why do you think this incident affected you?

  Mark Walsh : I dunno. Maybe I felt responsible.

  Joaquín Morales : Well perhaps if you hadn't been there, he wouldn't have run. The soldiers would not have fired, hmm?

  Mark Walsh : [after a pause]  I suppose so...

  Joaquín Morales : Well that makes perfect sense. You feel that you're responsible because to a great degree, you are. You think I'm too harsh? How many people have you told this story to, Mark? Four? Three? Two? Twenty? And what do they say? "Oh you mustn't blame yourself." "Oh no, it was not your fault." "Oh no, there was nothing you could do." Am I correct? You have looked to others for forgiveness but, as you have discovered, this is something they cannot give you. We cannot let go of the pain, we have to carry it with us forever. That is what it means to live. Now, I can help you to live with this pain. Look at me!

  [Mark turns his eyes to look at him] 

  Joaquín Morales : I am eighty-six years old. I lost my entire family, I lost my parents, I lost my brothers and sisters and I lost my wife. And yet, I am still here, I can still smile, and the world is still, a wonderful place.

• Joaquín Morales : You know you sleep very peacefully, theres not a movement, not a wrinkle in your face, just like a baby.

  Mark Walsh : Thats a good thing isn't it?

  Joaquín Morales : No. If you were thrashing about and muttering to yourself it would mean a problem is close by. But peacefullness, in a grown man, that is not a good sign.

• Elena Morales : Do you think you can help him?

  Joaquín Morales : Yes. Of course I can help him. I can help anyone.

• Joaquín Morales : The world is a very complex place. There is very little of it that is black and white.

• Joaquín Morales : Perhaps you have not told us the whole story.

• Joaquín Morales : Why are you so concerned about what happens to the dead?

• Joaquín Morales : I like to think of myself as a scholar of the human spirit.