Notre Corps

A 15-year-old grapples with her unplanned pregnancy, a young woman talks about the violent pains she feels in her womb, an older woman finds out that the chemotherapy is not working. In the mode of participatory observation, Claire Simon explores a gynecological clinic in Paris, showing births, cancer diagnoses and operations as well as consultations about endometriosis, gender transition, artificial insemination and hormone therapy for a trans woman. Finally, the filmmaker becomes a patient herself – and appears before the camera too. What is means to live in a female body and what happens when this body comes up against the medical system is made very much apparent in this hugely impressive documentary, as is the fact that individual hardships in relation to disease always also have a social dimension. (bik)