Born in Bethlehem
This film follows staff and expectant mothers through a year at the Holy Family Hospital, Bethlehem, which serves all women regardless of religion or ethnicity.
Bethlehem is known globally as the birthplace of Christ. It also sits in the Occupied West Bank at the heart of one of the world’s most intractable conflicts. Following the October 7th Hamas-led attack on Israel, this film follows staff and mothers through a year at the Holy Family Hospital, run by the Catholic Order of Malta, which serves all women regardless of religion or ethnicity.
Since the war began the hospital has faced increasing pressure: checkpoints and roadblocks hamper movement, stress can induce premature births, missiles fly overhead and the staff and mothers listen to the devastating daily news from Gaza just 50 miles away.
Vera, a maternity nurse, travels with the hospital’s mobile clinic every week to check up on pregnant women in remote areas. It’s a dangerous road as many of these villages are surrounded by illegal Israeli settlements and there have been many reports of violent settler attacks on Palestinian villages.
New mother Amani gave birth to premature twins, a boy and a girl. The boy died, and the girl is on life support in the hospitals Neo Intensive Care Unit. Her paediatrician, Dr George, is concerned that she too may not survive. Amani visits her night and day and anxiously monitors her progress.
Renad is pregnant with her first child. Urban, secular and progressive in outlook, she works as a social worker with young girls in Shu’fat camp, one of the most overcrowded refugee camps outside Jerusalem.
Khuloud lives in the village of Kisan which is surrounded by settlements. She has five children and is pregnant with her sixth. Things are already difficult, when her husband is murdered by his cousins in a dispute over water. The settlers are encroaching on her land and some of her husband’s killers are still at large.
