Being human means having some very basic needs. We want to be able to keep ourselves warm with a roof over our heads and enjoy our food. The need for affection and love is very strong too, coded into our DNA. We need to reproduce in order to secure that DNA and make sure a part of us keeps living. Mark O’Brien (John Hawkes) also has these needs, but because of polio can’t move his muscles. He can talk and move his head slightly, but he needs constant help and can’t survive for more than three hours without his iron lung, a big machine which helps him to breathe. He’s very religious and a poet and despite his disability leads a life in which he does achieve a lot. He knows that despite his mental health (and wealth) his body will give up long before he wants it to. At age 38 he has never had sex and when he is asked to write an article about the problems disabled people have with sex he decides he also wants to experience it. Continue reading →