Motherland

Welcome to the largest maternity ward in the world. Every day, more than one hundred children are born in the Jose Fabella Hospital in Manila. Up to five women have to share a bed, incubators are scarce, the mother's body warmth must suffice - „kangaroo mother care“, as it's called there. What sounds dramatic seems to work astonishingly seamless. Ramona S. Diaz’s fascinating portrait of an institution, filmed in the tradition of Direct Cinema, never feels like a depressing view into Third World poverty. She shows a hospital that is well-organized despite all the overloading – where mothers meet their fate with some humour, too. MOTHERLAND won her the Special Jury Award at Sundance.