Sunday, October 6, 2024

April (2024) NYFF 2024


An obstetrician gets into trouble when an infant dies during delivery. She followed the mothers request not to do a c section and that may have resulted in the child's death. As she awaits the outcome of the inquiry, which everyone fears will result in her being found out to be an abortionist, she broods on life.

Slow, I mean glacially slow, film is told with painfully long silences and never ending shots. Its a "real" time film on abortion issues and as such is a festival darling. It's a beautifully shot film with a killer sound design which should make it a winner but the film is so gawd awful slow that no one is really going to watch more than once.

Kudos to this polemic being adult and showing things on screen. When it's working it's real life feeling sequences will affect you (people left during the births and abortion) but the pacing, the artistic sequences and at times deliberately plotted/constructed moments work against it. I'm not sure how many people would have stayed to the end if there wasn't another press screening after it.

I, and everyone at the press screening, admire it for taking a stand (and that's the reason its at festivals) but I doubt anyone will really stay or stay awake long enough to hear what it has to say.

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