There is something at once mesmerising and deeply unsettling that exudes, from the onset, as the plot unfolds. Perhaps this particular mood is owed to the steady and slow rhythm punctuating the narrative, while aesthetically, breathtaking shots of the southeastern city of Aden, its winding, narrow streets, majestic mountains, and historic harbour participate in delineating a distinctive portrait of a Yemeni city and its people on the cusp of an increasingly fragile moment set in 2019.
Director Amr Gamal’s second feature film is the first Yemeni film to have been screened at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2023 and to have subsequently won a vast array of awards at international festivals. I had the chance to watch it when it was screened at the Al Film, Berlin Arab Film Festival in April 2024.
The Burdened follows the journey of a middle-class Yemeni family as the everyday becomes progressively more difficult to manage on account of the ongoing civil war and the ensuing inflation and economic deprivation. Isra’ (Abeer Mohammed) and her husband Ahmed (Khaled Hamdan) -a former TV employee who now resorts to driving a minibus to ensure a daily wage- must give up the comfort of their small apartment which they share with their three children and move to an inconspicuous studio located on the outskirts of the city, by a cemetery and a dumpster. These are times marked by constant hardship and every small expenditure demands great sacrifice and recourse to alternative resources.
The family’s misfortune only grows when the couple realises Isra’ is pregnant with a fourth child, which, both agree, they cannot afford to bring up in their current situation. What follows is then an impossible quest to try and terminate the pregnancy. Isra’ first turns to her old friend Mona, a practicing gynaecologist at the local hospital, only to be reprimanded for wanting to commit a sinful act. The weight of this societal taboo does not, however, halt Isra’ and Ahmed’s determination; on the contrary, the couple explores all possibilities as the abortion becomes a sine qua non condition of their family’s sheer survival. The despair leads them to solicit the services of a dubious woman who practices illegal and unsafe abortions at home in exchange for a wad of notes. Realising her friend is ready to put her own life on the line in order to have the abortion, Mona suddenly shows up and interrupts the illegal procedure and then offers Isra’ to carry it out herself in the safer environment of the hospital, under the pretence that the foetus is not viable. Mona thus jeopardises her own career and beliefs and subsequently takes distance from her friend once the procedure is achieved.
The Burdened is a stunning film; one that beautifully depicts the tour de force operated by the main protagonists (exceptionally performed by the actors) in the face of the dire conditions of present-day Yemen, its run-down hospitals, destitute population, lack of proper infrastructure, and takeover by militias.
The Burdened (Amr Gamal, Yemen/Sudan/Saudi Arabia, 2023, 91 min.)
