The Miracle of Life: In the Silence of Pregnancy

In her latest documentary-style short about her personal experience with pregnancy, Palestinian director Sabrine Khoury raises several questions about her right to express her physical and emotional pains during this period. Titled ‘THE MIRACLE OF LIFE,’ Khoury addresses the implied beauty of pregnancy that hides so much uncertainty, fear, and existential questions.

In this experimental short documentary set to premiere globally at the Beirut International Women’s Film Festival, Khoury presents her personal and honest journey through her pregnancy. Using intimate reflections, she confronts pain, uncertainty, and fear of physical changes, and explores an identity crisis while challenging societal norms about pregnancy and motherhood.

Against the backdrop of the genocide in Gaza, her deep questions add to the impact of her experience, as she wonders about her right to express her pain while feeling guilty for it, asking, “Do I have the right to complain about my pain while our people there suffer unbearable horrors?”

“I was pregnant for the first time, living in a safe place, preparing to welcome a new life, and at the same time, I was seeing images and videos of the genocide in Gaza. This contradiction was too heavy for me to process,” she added.

Khoury relies on an intimate documentary style in the film, narrating her feelings and thoughts in her own voice using a close-up camera without trying to embellish or adapt to fit a certain stereotype. Instead, she conveys feelings of tension and fatigue with complete honesty, without barriers.

She also dives into the physical and psychological transformations: The swelling of the belly and breasts, stretch marks and weight gain, mood swings and emotional breakdowns, constant fear of the present and future, and the identity crisis of being both a woman and a mother.

Khoury goes through each symptom and associated feeling of these transformations, giving each adequate time in the short with a rare boldness oft not seen on our screen, opting not to present these details in a melodramatic way, but in an honest manner stemming from a personal experience filled with conflicting emotions in a true confrontation with herself.

In the midst of this personal journey, Khoury cannot separate herself from her broader reality — the reality of her people in Gaza, living under bombardment and undergoing genocide. She admits her personal privilege, saying, “I cried a lot, but I felt ashamed of my tears.” Here, the honesty presented in the film’s narrative is complete, as despite the personal suffering, it emerges in a context that combines the specificity of the Palestinian experience and the universality of the human experience.

One aspect that helped the film come out in this honest form is that Sabrine’s husband, Rashed Rashed, was the one who filmed it, adding a human dimension about the importance of support and partnership during pregnancy, placing the film among cinematic experiences that combine personal documentation with an experimental and realistic character. This collaboration between the couple creates a space of intimacy and honesty in the narrative, leaving viewers to reflect and feel everything that was happening.

A joint production between Palestine and the Netherlands, THE MIRACLE OF LIFE is written, directed, and edited by Sabrine Khoury, produced by Nawl Productions, and lensed by Rashed Rashed, with Maen El Ghoul as music composer and Sami Merib as sound designer. MAD World handles the film’s worldwide sales, while MAD Distribution manages its distribution across the Arab world.

Sabrine Khoury is a Palestinian filmmaker and producer born in Canada who later returned to her hometown of Nazareth, Palestine, and currently resides in the Netherlands. She currently lives in the Netherlands. After completing her studies in cinema, Khoury engaged in photography, writing, and filmmaking, primarily focusing on feminist and cultural themes.

A co-founder of NAWL — a house of creativity, art, and production — Sabrine has directed and produced short films, music videos, commercials, and musical theater, always striving to push the boundaries of storytelling and visual art.

Her films include short films such as HIBA, which won the Jury President’s Award at the Early Bird International Student Film Festival in 2013, and SANTÉ, which was featured in international festivals including Cinemed Montpellier, IFVA Hong Kong (Special Mention), FIPA France, and more.