And incredibly brave.
Members of a self-help group share their experiences with perinatal mental health disorders. Their confessions are incredibly intimate and courageous, as the negative aspects of motherhood are among the most taboo in our civilization. The women speak of doctors ignoring symptoms, shame about their own thoughts, and recall historical witch trials and embarrassing contemporary statistics on ethnic discrimination in healthcare.
The film is richly illustrated with film clips showing, among other things, the profound infantilization of motherhood in popular culture. This means that women experiencing perinatal mental health disorders are often left completely alone with their problems, which sometimes ends tragically. And although subsequent embarrassing statistics confirm this, this issue is absent from the social and political debate, at least in most countries. Many documentaries address important social issues: economic inequality, discrimination against certain social groups, the planet's ecological degradation, dictatorial regimes and harsh laws targeting political dissidents, and the distortions of late capitalism. Yet, all of these issues are widely known. Perinatal mental health disorders are perhaps the most hermetic topic, one that remains largely unspoken. Or rarely and quietly discussed. This is why this is one of the most important documentaries, as it explores a widely unknown issue.
