WISE WOMEN: Kinotour in Berlin & Regie-Gespräch

Cinema Tour in Berlin—followed by a Q&A with director Nicole Scherg

In *WISE WOMEN*, director Nicole Scherg follows five midwives from different parts of the world as they go about their work: Genet Gebru from Ethiopia, Aïcha El Fathi from Morocco, Kanchan Mala Shrestha from Nepal, Gunda Gutscher from Austria, and Sheila Santos from Brazil. They all support women during one of the most intense and formative moments of their lives: the birth of a child.
How women give birth concerns us all. In diverse cultural, social, and medical contexts, the protagonists support mothers through a process that is both universal and deeply personal. Whether in a modern hospital, a self-organized birthing center, or under more basic conditions in rural areas, the midwives navigate the balance between control and unpredictability, for a birth does not follow a script.
Women’s health, as this film quickly makes clear, is always shaped by economic and social conditions. WISE WOMEN powerfully illustrates just how varied the conditions for a safe birth can be.
The documentary views childbirth as a transformative experience and captures intimate, powerful images of the beginning of life, which resembles a force of nature. It honors the women who accompany this moment and thus literally hold the future in their hands.