MIDWIVES (SAGES-FEMMES) World Cinema

North American Premiere

Screening to be followed by a conversation with actress Héloïse Janjaud.

Five years after studying to be professional midwives, Sofia (Khadija Kouyaté) and Louise (Héloïse Janjaud) begin their residency at a hospital, eager to perform “the most beautiful job in the world.” The work soon proves to be unlike anything they studied, with a maternity ward crowded with patients and only a few midwives available to provide the necessary care. This whirlwind of difficult births, untimely deaths and scant resources puts unimaginable strain on Sofia and Louise’s resolve and lifelong friendship. Embedding herself directly in a hospital, and encouraging actual midwives to influence the script, play supporting roles and even inform the editing process, director Léa Fehner composes a dynamic and heartfelt ode to a systematically undervalued profession. Shot in a quasi-cinema verité style that engenders a great degree of sympathy for every person in the hospital, this is a rollercoaster of a film that underscores the fractures in the medical world and French society at large. –Javier Chavez