Life

In less than seven minutes, this documentary—a dialogue-free meditation by Armenian filmmaker Artavazd Pelechian—tells a universal story about birth. Pelechian keeps the handheld camera close to the face of an expectant mother, who is turned completely inward during the both painful and extraordinary final moments of labor.

The young woman appears oblivious to the presence of others. Her face is marked by physical suffering, primal strength, and the realization that something momentous and inevitable is taking place: the beginning of a new life and a new bond between two people. These naturalistic yet poetic images are accompanied by the sound of a continuous heartbeat and the music of Giuseppe Verdi.

In 2021, director Pelechian (The Beginning, 1967; Seasons of the Year, 1975; Nature, 2020) received the Lifetime Achievement Award at IDFA for his distinctive, experimental approach to filmmaking, which straddles the boundary between documentary and feature film.