Heartbeat

In Heartbeat (Latido), director and co-writer Katina Medina Mora (known for Selena: The Series) tackles a thorny story about motherhood, deconstructing its ideals and taboos. The plot follows Leonor (Roma's Marina de Tavira), a recently separated, wealthy woman who, at 45, is still struggling to have a baby. Her last and desperate chance comes unexpectedly when Emilia (Camila Calónico), a talented teenage dancer, sees her future thwarted when she becomes pregnant. From this emerges a contemplative story where, isolated from the world in a remote country house, both women await the baby's arrival, getting to know each other, reflecting on the taboos of the secret adoption they've agreed upon, and on their own desires to be mothers. The pace is somewhat uneven, emotionally somewhat distant, and the narrative could better consider its class component, but it is a good first step towards important questions about unwanted motherhood and precarious access to reproductive rights.