Two Mothers

When Katja (Sabine Wolf) and Isabella (Karina Plachetka), a married lesbian German couple in their late 30s, decide to start a family they quickly discover that government, nature, and a profit-driven fertility industry are all working against them. While gay marriage is legal, the right to receive service at a sperm bank is not universally recognized, and private contracts with individual doctors involve financial criteria that Katja and Isabella cannot meet (and which straight couples don't have to worry about). Out-of-pocket costs for insemination treatments not covered by insurance are hefty, and the chances of getting pregnant are low. As the months pass and the bills pile up, Katja and Isabella turn to semi-hucksters and sketchy donors in a desperate bid to succeed—but at great personal cost. Writer-director Anne Zohra Berrached and her two leads do a remarkable job of tracing the gradual emotional disintegration between a couple in love but undone by a challenging goal. Presenting an intimate and powerful study of human behavior under duress, this is highly recommended. (T. Keogh)