Midwives movie review (2022) | Little White Lies

Mid­wives

30 Sep 2022 / Released: 30 Sep 2022

Words by Jamison Kent

Directed by Hnin Ei Hlaing

Silhouettes of an adult and child against an orange and red sunset sky, with grass in the foreground.
Silhouettes of an adult and child against an orange and red sunset sky, with grass in the foreground.
3

Anticipation.

For those uneducated on the ongoing conflict in Myanmar, this seems essential.

4

Enjoyment.

Although uncomfortable to watch, the film offers incredible insight into the Rohingya Crisis.

3

In Retrospect.

Perhaps would have benefited from some informative context earlier in the film.

Hnin Ei Hlaing’s eye-open­ing doc­u­men­tary depicts the ram­pant and ongo­ing cri­sis in Myan­mar through the eyes of two caregivers.

Copi­ous amounts of blood, heat­ed exchanges, a dra­mat­ic close call and a well-inten­tioned yet often clue­less male part­ner are the stan­dard ele­ments of a birth scene in west­ern tele­vi­sion and cin­e­ma. The open­ing scene of direc­tor Hnin Ei Hlaing’s doc­u­men­tary, Mid­wives, depicts mid­wives Hla and Nyo Nyo aid­ing a woman as she gives birth to an unre­spon­sive child on top of a green plas­tic tarp.

Despite the harsh­er con­di­tions that make a west­ern hos­pi­tal room look like a five-star resort, there’s no scream­ing, lit­tle blood and the frus­trat­ed mid­wife calm­ly asserts, I just told you bitch­es to shut up,” as her col­league resus­ci­tates the new­born. Ei Hlaing leaves gore and drama­ti­sa­tion on the cut­ting room floor. Instead, she offers a por­trait of the Rohingya Cri­sis in Myan­mar through the doc­u­men­ta­tion of the per­son­al lives of Hla and Nyo Nyo.

Accord­ing to the UN, Rohingya Mus­lims liv­ing in Myan­mar are one of the most oppressed minor­i­ty groups in the world. The doc­u­men­tary fol­lows Hla, a Bud­dhist and own­er of a makeshift med­ical clin­ic in west­ern Myan­mar which offers aid to Rohingya Mus­lim res­i­dents, a pun­ish­able and life-threat­en­ing offence. As well as Nyo Nyo, there’s Hla’s younger Mus­lim appren­tice who hopes to open her own clin­ic one day.

The doc­u­men­tary uses the per­son­al to explore the polit­i­cal, show­ing that the two are nev­er mutu­al­ly exclu­sive. The trust between Ei Hlaing and her var­i­ous patients allows for pro­found­ly inti­mate inter­views that make them seem relat­able and com­plex rather than vic­tims of an unjust situation.

In one mem­o­rable scene, Hla’s ill moth­er offers some unso­licit­ed advice: Nev­er get mar­ried, okay? Don’t chase a man to mar­ry you. I’m telling you not to chase a man. They are bad.” The inclu­sion of can­did and off-hand­ed remarks cre­ates a well-round­ed pic­ture of the sub­jects and, at points, some crit­i­cal com­ic relief.

Con­tex­tu­al infor­ma­tion about Myanmar’s polit­i­cal cli­mate does not come in until well into the doc­u­men­tary. The aes­thet­ic direc­tion is main­ly lim­it­ed to scenic shots of the coun­try­side and light seep­ing through the floor­boards and win­dows of less-than-reli­able struc­tures. While it is not par­tic­u­lar­ly inter­est­ing aes­thet­i­cal­ly, it allows the view­er to breathe and com­pre­hend the con­tent between the action” and interviews.

Ei Hlaing’s voice takes a back­seat to her sub­jects’. She lets them con­trol the nar­ra­tive and takes on the role of an inquis­i­tive and sym­pa­thet­ic spec­ta­tor. Some of the most poignant moments result from her acute aware­ness of when to get out of the way. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, that is not a guar­an­teed skill for all doc­u­men­tary mak­ers. This is a com­pas­sion­ate and edu­ca­tion­al look into a con­flict-rid­den area and the women and chil­dren suf­fer­ing at its centre.

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