Midwives
Description
Buddhist midwife Hla runs a tight ship ministering health care to the Rohingya, the Muslim ethnic minority that have lived in Myanmar for generations. Muslim midwife apprentice Nyo Nyo trains under her, assisting with translation and overseeing many patients from her community. Due to ingrained power dynamics and their respective cultural prejudices, the two women often clash. Hla wants economic stability for her clinic. Nyo Nyo’s own ambitions extend further afield. With unparalleled access to their lives over five years, director Snow Hnin El Hlaing captures the heart of a war-weary nation through the strength of its most vulnerable citizens in her documentary feature debut, the winner of the Sundance Film Festival’s Excellence in Vérité Filmmaking World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award.
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Trailer
Biographies
Snow Hnin Ei Hlaing is a director, producer, editor, and sound recordist based in her native Myanmar. She previously made a documentary short, Burmese Butterfly (2012). With her home country currently under military rule, she describes a basic challenge in making Midwives (2022), her first feature, “While filming, my cameraman and I didn’t feel safe the whole time. If we were to get caught with all the data and gear, we would be arrested.”
