Filmmaker Ramona S. Diaz's cinema vérité documentary immerses viewers in the controlled chaos of Dr. Jose Fabella Memorial Hospital, the busiest maternity clinic in the world. Located in Manila, Fabella treats hundreds of young Filipino women—struggling with poverty, lack of education, a cultural bias toward large families, and no birth control—with unplanned pregnancies. Eschewing interviews or contextual explanations, Diaz lets Fabella's relentless activity speak for itself, as medical staff deliver one baby after another (many premature), jam patients two to a bed in overcrowded conditions, try to help clueless first-time moms, and also counsel women with frequent pregnancies to accept an IUD or tubal ligation. Nearly all of the women seen here come to the clinic alone and are not visited by husbands or boyfriends, often because their partners are broke or make excuses. Diaz's fly-on-the-wall approach brings her very close to intimate situations: not only deliveries but also breastfeeding guidance and a technique for warming a newborn by snuggling the child inside an extended tube top worn by the mother (the underfunded facility lacks incubators). Crises occasionally crop up, but some truly stand out—such as a harrowing scene in which staff and a neglectful mother cannot identify which of two babies belongs to the latter. Diaz's camera is both unobtrusive and urgently present throughout, allowing these overlapping stories to tell themselves. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (T. Keogh)
Motherland
(2017) 94 min. DVD: $19.95, Blu-ray: $24.95. FilmRise (avail. from most distributors). Volume 33, Issue 1
Motherland
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