Mother-Child

Directed by Andrea Testa

In shades of gray, the calm, static shots show young female visitors to a public hospital in Argentina. This is the place where teenage girls have to make a decision about the new life growing inside them. A few of them have, at a very young age indeed, already had children. For others, the idea of a future as a mother is new and terrifying. In many cases, though, having an abortion isn’t a decision to be taken for granted. Some of the girls have learned from childhood that getting pregnant is your own fault, and you have to accept the consequences. What they know about abortion comes from horror stories of clandestine practices in backstreet clinics. The hospital gynecologists and other staff, who can be heard but not seen, ask the girls about their well-being, their relationship, their family ties, and how they see the future—with or without a child. In these intimate and non-judgmental conversations, the girls respond with powerful candor in their most vulnerable moments.