Midwives
Directed by Léa Fehner
Enzian Theater, Maitland, Florida • April 16, 2024
by Carl F. Gauze
We are somewhere in the distant industrial outlands of France. That’s nowhere near the Riviera or Gay Paree, but babies are popping out all over, and they all need help to survive. There’s a hospital in this un-named town, but it can barely keep up with the fecundity of this largely industrial landscape. Sofia and Louise are the newbies. They’ve got their medical training down cold, but the business of traffic flow bowls them over. Friday night brings out the gunshots, and patients come in so fast there is no where to park the gurneys. As the nursing staff struggles to hang together one more night, they question their life choices and their chosen profession and think “What the heck did I sign up for?” Well, it sure wasn’t for the glory or the money.
Between the birthing and the diapers, we see little vignettes of motivation, dedication, and no-nonsense triage action that mixes the heartbreaking and the hopeful. I admit I had trouble keeping every nurse straight, but somehow, that’s not important. What is important is the willingness of the nursing staff to do what it can, when it can, and deliver the good news and the bad news with equal professionalism. Considering a career in medicine? This might clear up some romantic misconceptions.
There’s not a true story arc as in a classic drama, but rather a mélange of crisis piled upon crisis, with no effective triage process. You want them to save all the souls that waft through the ward, but you know more than a few will perish under the needle of morphine. The results in a calmer environment would be similar, but more considered and weighed.
Either way, some will live and some will die, but all will be exhausted. I know I was.
This film was presented as part of the 2024 Florida Film Festival.
