Now playing at the Berlin International Film Festival, The Burdened from director Amr Gamal (based on a true story from his circle of friends) takes us into the war ravaged reality of Aden, a city in southern Yemen. Although the war is ever-present in the form of damaged buildings and soldiers from different factions popping up everywhere, the story follows the daily and somewhat universal financial struggle of Ahmed (Khaled Hamdan), his newly pregnant wife Isra’a (Abeer Mohammed), and their three young children.
The couple want to get an abortion because they cannot afford what their family and friends refer to as a blessing. They already live like sardines with their three kids and will be forced into an even smaller and decrepit apartment to save money. It’s a wonder they found time and space to even have sex at all. A moment of privacy is impossible for Ahmed, be it at home or in the van he drives picking up fares. He speaks openly of the abortion in front of the kids, even saying within earshot that they wanted to abort their youngest Nawar years ago but couldn’t get it done.
Despite this frankness and the gloomy sounding set up to the story, Ahmed and Isra’a come across as good parents. They don’t shower the children with affection. They’re too exhausted by the never ending need to get the money to live. We see them buying groceries, school uniforms, figuring out what they can afford for rent and tuition. But you do feel they love their family and the kids seem happy regardless of how much they are aware of their parents’ hardships.
Ahmed hasn’t been paid in two months by his old job at a public television channel. He’s also too principled to take a job at a private station where he feels he’d be unable to say what he wants. Accepting help from his military brother-in-law is also not an option for him. Having to collect water from a communal drop-off location and constant power outages round out his difficulties.
They face their principles too in deciding if the abortion is permitted by their interpretation of Islam. One reading is that the foetus doesn’t get a soul until 120 days after conception. Also the wife of a Muslim prophet had an abortion so why can’t Ahmed and Isra’a? In front of an urban cemetery, Ahmed’s friend jokes with him that it’s because that guy was a prophet and Ahmed is not.
They have trouble accessing the not strictly legal procedure. Isra’a’s friend Muna, a doctor, refuses to do it. The frustration of this leads to Ahmed violently grabbing Isra’a in the street. They have no stress free moments for affection so this violence is perversely the most intimate action they share in the film, leading to Ahmed crying in the kitchen when Isra’a tells him to never lay hands on her again. To remind them of all that is at stake, their eldest son comes in to grab a bottle of water from the fridge. He catches a glimpse of his father’s tears.
The film offers a hopeful ending, a possibility that all the sacrifice and difficulty will be worth it. Ahmed and Isra’a finally buy something that isn’t a necessity, decorations their kids want for their new, more dingy apartment.
There’s a constant sense of movement throughout, a feeling that if Ahmed stops for more than a second everything will fall apart. Exhausting for him, but an effective way to show us the city of Aden, from Isra’a’s sister’s balcony above the sea to a small darkened street where people line up for clean water. Khaled Hamdan and Abeer Mohammed give strong anchoring performances as the two leads. The final scene with the kids in the back seat of the van feels like relief for the parents and safety for their children.
© 2020-2023. UniversalCinema Mag.