Winner best documentary Viktor DOK.deutsch
A documentary narration of ten years by Katja Baumgarten
Gisela Tuchtenhagen: camera, Christian Iseli: editing
Nikolaus Baumgarten: courtroom drawings
Germany, 96 minuten, 2023, Premiere DOK.fest Munich May 5th 2023
A midwife is sentenced.
A nightmare has become reality: A little girl is born lifeless. Her midwife and doctor begins resuscitate her. Later, an emergency physician takes over. The little girl doesn’t survive. Her parents name her Greta.
Four years later, her midwife and doctor is on trial. Greta wasn’t in the usual position in her mother’s womb. She was lying the other way around. Why did Greta die? Was it a mistake on the part of her midwife and doctor? Did she deliberately cause Greta’s death? The verdict: “Guilty of manslaughter”. Six years and nine months in prison, professional ban, compensatory damages. Questions remain unanswered.
It is an unprecedented verdict after the unfortunate outcome of a birth. After her release from prison, nothing is the same for the former doctor and midwife, now in her late 60s. She no longer feels like she has a place in the German legal system.
Originally I only wanted to attend the first day of the trial, then come back later for the sentencing. What I experience in the courtroom captivates me: The atmosphere is emotionally charged, and at the same time it involves technical details that only specialists can grasp. Imaginations and interpretations emerge in the reconstruction of Greta’s birth. Social issues are also dealt with.
I have been a midwife myself and I have attended many births. Now I am an editor of a midwifery maga- zine. Spontaneously I document the process, at some point also start filming. A documentary narration from ten years.
Gretas Geburt_Synopsis_DOK.fest_dt
A nightmare has become reality: A little girl is born lifeless. Her midwife and doctor begins resuscitate her. Later, an emergency physician takes over. The little girl doesn’t survive. Her parents name her Greta.
Four years later, her midwife and doctor is on trial. Greta wasn’t in the usual position in her mother’s womb. She was lying the other way around. Why did Greta die? Was it a mistake on the part of her midwife and doctor? Did she deliberately cause Greta’s death? The verdict: “Guilty of manslaughter”. Six years and nine months in prison, professional ban, compensatory damages. Questions remain unanswered.
It is an unprecedented verdict after the unfortunate outcome of a birth. After her release from prison, nothing is the same for the former doctor and midwife, now in her late 60s. She no longer feels like she has a place in the German legal system.
Originally I only wanted to attend the first day of the trial, then come back later for the sentencing. What I experience in the courtroom captivates me: The atmosphere is emotionally charged, and at the same time it involves technical details that only specialists can grasp. Imaginations and interpretations emerge in the reconstruction of Greta’s birth. Social issues are also dealt with.
I have been a midwife myself and I have attended many births. Now I am an editor of a midwifery magazine. Spontaneously I document the process, at some point also start filming.
Funded by the nordmedia Film- und Mediengesellschaft
Niedersachsen/Bremen mbH.
Supported by the Filmbüro Bremen and the
Bremen documentary grant award 2014
Produced by
viktoria11.de | Dokumentarfilm
Katja Baumgarten