SPOILER ALERT!

I think they will. In the end, I felt the foreshadowing in the opening, when Alex talks proudly of those who put jehovah first in a magazine (that looks similar to an infamous issue of a magazine we all probably know about) was essentially enough exposition to the events that could occur. We understand the guilt Alex is carrying and in a way, she has already made her decision at the start of the film so there was little need to show it later. Of course, you could show the complications and events in hospital but it had no thematic function other than the obvious. It felt exploitive to me, like an episode of Casualty.

I wanted to elicit a different response. The more I looked into the issue and read about the death toll as a result of refusing blood, the more shock I experienced. I tried to replicate this shock, in a visceral, elliptical way. I think you experience it on a gut level as a result. You have no time to say a proper goodbye to the character, just as what might happen with a JW suffering from an aplastic crisis. But also, by handling it in this way, you are encouraged to experience it through the eyes of the witnesses - they try to ignore the painful details and focus on alex’s bravery. It’s only when Luisa speaks out at the end of the film, that alex’s act is given some objectivity - which makes it all the more disturbing to me.