Two women, one young and one older, sit across from each other in a medieval wooden room, illuminated only by dim candlelight. The older woman, a midwife, is in the foreground, slightly out of focus. Her hands, grizzled and worn, are the main emphasis, passing smoothly over the top of various herbs and tools laid out on the table.
The younger woman, the focus of the shot, stares intently at what the midwife is doing, her eager, innocent eyes wide in comparison to her sullen, lifeless surroundings. The low-key lighting gives the scene nostalgic undertones in sepia to reflect her transition from girlhood to adulthood.
The camera angle, hovering at eye-level and almost directly between the two women, signifies the power dynamic at play. There’s a slow, successive zoom from the midwife’s hands towards the young girl’s face, growing more tense with each passing second. The vast emptiness of the room, save for the table between them, conveys their isolation and magnifies the significance of this impending rite.