Films about terminations often have the capacity for controversy with so many having differing views. Our own Editor for one certainly has strong views instigated by the knowledge that many years ago his own mother had sought advice about a termination. It was only that the doctor pointed out that her son was 18 that she did not follow through (‘You’re fired!’ – Ed). But the story of Belen is a true one that starts in 2014 when a young woman (Camilla Plaate) suffering from crippling abdominal pain is taken to a nightmarish A&E ward where she’s given a cursory once over by an indifferent doctor. She later returns from the bathroom bleeding heavily from a miscarriage and shortly after a team of police officers barge into a surgical theatre where a doctor is carrying out an examination on her who immediately handcuff and arrest Belen for ‘aggravated homicide due to kinship’.
It’s a gripping and shocking opening to the film and after a less than interested court lawyer nonchalantly defends her without a full file of evidence Belen ends up with an eight year prison sentence. It’s the stuff of nightmares but its lawyer Soledad Deza (Dolores Fonzi) appalled at the verdict, determines to get justice for ‘Belen’, the moniker she gives her client to protect her identity and in turn the woman’s family too. This being Argentina where pro-choice was never really an option and both lawyer and client soon find just how obstructive the powers that be will be. Time wasting bureaucrats, bricks through the window and cell set alight are just some of what they face but Deza along with a team she assembles to fight the injustice builds a movement that sees marches throughout the cities, media coverage (there’s a particularly outrageous TV interview that she takes part in only for her to be hijacked by its presenter – a kind of gaucho even more perma-tanned Richard Madeley.
It’s not a perfect film – its only hints at Deza’s team not seeing eye to eye with her dictatorial way of running the case but like so many films about miscarriages of justice there’s a level of anger and outrage about the case. That the initial trial where an indifferent defence did not push back about the incomplete case file wafer thin to the point of non-existence without any DNA evidence, witness statements, forensics or indeed anything and dubbed ‘My aspirational case file ’ by Two Tier Kier Starmer – the UK’s Prime Minster who has all the authority of a Best Before date on a sandwich.
What the woman was unnecessarily put through and the frustration at authorities dragging their feet and at worst obstructing at every opportunity created a people’s movement that changed public perception and in turn the law is both horrific yet inspirational.
related feature : Jasmine Batchelor and ‘The Surrogate’ dilemma – To terminate a Down’s Syndrome pregnancy?
related feature : ‘Vera Drake’ – BLU-RAY review of the Mike Leigh true life termination drama
Here’s the Belen trailer…..
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