The pressure to become a mother pushes a woman toward an increasingly dangerous deception in “A Child Of My Own,” the latest documentary from Oscar-nominated Chilean filmmaker Maite Alberdi.
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Recently married and grieving multiple miscarriages, Alejandra finds herself confronting not only personal loss but the shame and judgment imposed by those around her. Desperate to satisfy the expectations of her husband, family, and community, she claims to be pregnant and begins constructing an elaborate false reality around the lie.
What initially appears to be an attempt to escape humiliation grows into a complicated charade with consequences far beyond Alejandra’s household. The deception eventually erupts into a media scandal that grips the country, raising difficult questions about motherhood, social pressure, personal responsibility, and whether any single account can contain the complete truth.
Alberdi examines the case through testimony from those who experienced it, approaching the sensational circumstances through the intimate human perspectives behind the headlines. The filmmaker previously explored love, memory, and Alzheimer’s disease in “The Eternal Memory,” which The Playlist called “a striking and intimate piece of cinema” and awarded an A. Read our review here.
Written by Julián Loyola and Esteban Student, “A Child Of My Own” stars Ana Celeste Montalvo Peña, Luisa Guzmán, Armando Espitia, Mayra Sérbulo, Casio Figueroa, Alejandro Porter, Mayra Batalla, and Ángeles Cruz. Sandra Godínez, Carla González Vargas, and Maximiliano Sanguine produced the film.
“A Child Of My Own” premieres August 13 on Netflix. Watch the trailer below.
Edward Davis is a senior film journalist and longtime contributor to The Playlist. Davis covers the full breadth of cinema — from major studio releases to independent and international film.
