Ecuadorian Ana Cristina Benitez has crafted a creative if not poetic and hypnotic documentary about her battle with breast cancer.
A late diagnosis of stage three breast cancer sets in motion an exhausting and debilitating round of chemotherapy and radiotherapy followed by a mastectomy. We are a fly on the wall spectators watching her receive chemo treatment with many others in what resembles a chemotherapy factory at her hospital while the background radio details the latest Ecuadorian COVID fatalities. A patient at chemo is distraught as her husband left her for another woman after her hair fell out. The patients quip a woman will stay with her man right through to the end of chemo while a man will leave his woman after her hair falls out which we see plenty of on the floor. Ana’s partner Mateo is illustrative of the deserting man.
After chemo 32 sessions of radiotherapy and then a mastectomy where the reflective and calm Benitez shatters into sobs of utter defeat.
Benitez’s calm and poetic narration is interspersed with visually stunning cinematography of the sea and water rendering an almost pleasant dreamlike quality to her personal nightmare. These visual interludes, somewhat similar to the Chilean 2022 documentary “Corrupto” by Juan Cifuentes Mera, provide the viewer an opportunity to reflect and recover from the emotional waves and harsh medical images fired out by her technical and emotional descriptions. What is puzzling and distracting is older video footage of her childhood which as far as I can interpret serves little purpose.
Perhaps the most important aspect of the documentary are Benitez’s innermost thoughts about the entire process one such thought being she is everything but nothing and it is in the moments of darkness when the light shines most intensely.
You may watch the trailer here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Kx8OW1lrLU
The world premiere of MAMA is on 27/29 April.
RKS 2025 Documentary Rating 82/100.
A Bird's Eye View of Fashion, Food, Travel, Culture, Beverage and Curiosity 