Hold Your Breath

Filmmaker Maren Grainger-Monsen's Hold Your Breath is a sensitive film about the cultural conflicts that can arise over medical treatment. After fleeing war-torn Afghanistan in 1979, Mohammad Kochi came to America to make a life for himself and his family in California. Although he raised eight children while struggling to adapt in a new country, it was only after being diagnosed with a particularly aggressive form of stomach cancer that Kochi embarked on the greatest battle of his life: navigating the American healthcare system while trying to overcome cultural, language, and even philosophical barriers. Photographs from Kochi's past and footage from his pilgrimage to Mecca—after his diagnosis—are combined here with commentary from Kochi, his family, friends, and various healthcare workers involved in his case, as he rejects chemotherapy and his doctor fears that family members acting as interpreters haven't truly conveyed to him the seriousness of his illness. Hold Your Breath poignantly demonstrates that, despite good intentions, sometimes frustrating and even catastrophic consequences can result in a healthcare setting due to cultural miscommunication. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (N. Egan)