A Walk to Beautiful
Directed by Mary Olive Smith
at the Quad Cinemas
Mary Olive Smith’s moving documentary A Walk to Beautiful follows five Ethiopian women whose lives have been tragically altered by devastating childbirth injuries. Because of a lack of obstetric care, prolonged labor and small physical stature due to undernourishment, they suffer from an obstetric fibula: a hole between the bladder and the birth canal which causes chronic incontinence. The stigma and embarrassment of the condition can lead to a life of complete isolation from family and neighbors; as one young patient puts it, “I’d rather have my arm cut off than have this problem. At least I could mix with people. Nothing worse can happen.” The women, often alone and some from as far away as a 24-hour bus ride, seek treatment at the free Fistula Hospital in the city of Addis Ababa.
A Walk to Beautiful is lushly photographed and carried along by a spirited score featuring both Ethiopian and Western music, but the film’s most striking element proves to be the women at its center. When Wubete, a willful teenager, says that she will either leave the hospital cured or kill herself, her grin tells us that this is not fatalism, but rather determined optimism. The 17-year-old Yenenesh, who is originally discouraged by an inconclusive diagnosis and convinced that she will never be cured, is trained in healing exercises and moved to proclaim, “It is God’s will that we all have hope and a chance.” The hospital’s founder, Dr. Catherine Hamlin, sees success stories like these as the reward for her work.
Olive Smith’s message is simultaneously uplifting and heartbreaking. In these five stories, we bear witness to medicine’s miraculous potential—like the successful operation of a double fistula for Almaz, 20, who calls her surgeon “a blessed man.” On the other hand, Dr. Hamlin and the other hospital workers place blame for the fistula crisis squarely upon the wide-reaching effects of poverty, which continues to threaten the state of obstetric care in Ethiopia and elsewhere. The frightening reality that two to three million women worldwide suffer from obstetric fibula haunts the happy endings of the film’s five subjects like a ghostly call to arms.
Directed by Mary Olive Smith
at the Quad Cinemas
Mary Olive Smith’s moving documentary A Walk to Beautiful follows five Ethiopian women whose lives have been tragically altered by devastating childbirth injuries. Because of a lack of obstetric care, prolonged labor and small physical stature due to undernourishment, they suffer from an obstetric fibula: a hole between the bladder and the birth canal which causes chronic incontinence. The stigma and embarrassment of the condition can lead to a life of complete isolation from family and neighbors; as one young patient puts it, “I’d rather have my arm cut off than have this problem. At least I could mix with people. Nothing worse can happen.” The women, often alone and some from as far away as a 24-hour bus ride, seek treatment at the free Fistula Hospital in the city of Addis Ababa.
A Walk to Beautiful is lushly photographed and carried along by a spirited score featuring both Ethiopian and Western music, but the film’s most striking element proves to be the women at its center. When Wubete, a willful teenager, says that she will either leave the hospital cured or kill herself, her grin tells us that this is not fatalism, but rather determined optimism. The 17-year-old Yenenesh, who is originally discouraged by an inconclusive diagnosis and convinced that she will never be cured, is trained in healing exercises and moved to proclaim, “It is God’s will that we all have hope and a chance.” The hospital’s founder, Dr. Catherine Hamlin, sees success stories like these as the reward for her work.
Olive Smith’s message is simultaneously uplifting and heartbreaking. In these five stories, we bear witness to medicine’s miraculous potential—like the successful operation of a double fistula for Almaz, 20, who calls her surgeon “a blessed man.” On the other hand, Dr. Hamlin and the other hospital workers place blame for the fistula crisis squarely upon the wide-reaching effects of poverty, which continues to threaten the state of obstetric care in Ethiopia and elsewhere. The frightening reality that two to three million women worldwide suffer from obstetric fibula haunts the happy endings of the film’s five subjects like a ghostly call to arms.
