In a remote district hospital in 1980s Czechoslovakia, Ingrid is an ambitious doctor whose mission is to bring children into the world, terminate unwanted pregnancies and participate in the sterilisation of Romani women. The melancholy woman has greater misgivings about her private situation than her professional life, paying little heed to the wider consequences of her actions as she interferes in the lives of a minority reduced by the communist regime to a demographic problem. A new bond with Agáta, a 19-year-old orderly, introduces her to the human realities of Roma life and disrupts the certainties of her stagnant existence.
“We spoke with the doctors responsible for the sterilizations and they understand why we’re doing this. But many of them really wanted to help [back then], particularly those living in really terrible conditions with seven or eight kids. That’s the main issue here: when you have all these logical, rational arguments, you can forget about what’s moral.”
(Ivan Ostrochovsky)