Halisa
Sarah, 40, is a nurse at the Children’s Health Center in Halissa, a multi-ethnic and poverty neighborhood. For two years, Sarah tries to get pregnant. Her desire for a child is intertwined with the difficulties of a young mother until they reach an illusionary solution– the impossible gift of a baby.
Summary
Halisa follows Sarah, a 40-year-old nurse working at the Children’s Health Center in Halissa, a diverse, economically struggling neighborhood. For two years, she and her partner have been trying to have a child, and the emotional and physical strain of infertility has gradually become central to her life. At the clinic, Sarah cares for vulnerable children and families, but her professional compassion is inseparable from her own longing for motherhood. Her world becomes increasingly entangled with that of a young mother facing severe hardship. As Sarah witnesses the woman’s precarious circumstances, their relationship develops around a painful, complicated possibility: the idea that a baby might somehow become the answer to both of their problems. What initially appears to offer hope soon exposes the moral, emotional, and practical limits of such a solution. Set against the multicultural realities of Halissa, the film explores motherhood as both a deeply personal desire and a social role shaped by poverty, inequality, and circumstance. It also examines the boundaries between care and possession, generosity and desperation, and professional responsibility and private longing. Rather than treating parenthood as a simple fulfillment, Halisa presents it as an experience marked by conflicting needs, difficult choices, and the uneasy gap between what people want and what life can realistically give them.
