Delivery is a heart wrenching, eye opening short film portraying a night in a maternity ward, inspired by real experiences.
Written and directed by Ben Lankester, it is the story of a night in Mary’s life, on shift to deliver babies at the hospital she works in, during the Christmas period. As a 30-year-old, newly qualified midwife, she is passionate about her job, completely focused, and treats the women and families she is attending to with great tenderness and even love. On shift, while barely getting time to drink a cup of tea, she sees both the deepest tragedy and the greatest happiness.
Delivery is technically flawless. The rhythm, tiredness, tension and tenderness are all expressed through a mixture of tracking shots, close ups and over the shoulder shots. Mary is played by Rosie Chappel, who is actually a practicing midwife. Rosie’s performance is simply flawless in its naturalism and depth. The same is to be said of the actresses playing the mothers in labour- outstanding. In fact, the whole cast unites in an almost symphonic way to tell the story with a respect and affection rarely seen in cinema.
Narratively, this film is multidimensional, realistic, hard to watch and deeply tender, all at once. Much like life.
Delivery is also a story about the state of British healthcare, the lack of resources and heroic efforts of staff who work to their limits. Unquestionably, as Delivery illuminates, this disproportionately affects maternity services- something that can have life-destroying consequences, consequences which midwives like Mary in this story and Rosie in real life do their best to avoid, and ensure families leave the ward feeling it is the best days of their lives and never the worst.
Delivery is a must watch.