Death Certificate

“When it rains, it pours”, and Anna Rubin’s case is no different. During a postmortem interview, Anna recalls the story of her miscarriage, her husband’s unorthodox behavior, and her psychotherapy sessions, unfolding the details of the days leading up to her death. Was Anna’s death an act of helpless suicide or a vexing murder case? Was it somehow neither?

  • Rita Martinos
    Director
  • Geoff Dupuy-Holder
    Writer
  • Rita Martinos
    Writer
  • Rita Martinos
    Producer
  • Georges Gay
    Key Cast
    "Gabe"
  • Josh Mannon
    Key Cast
    "Paul"
  • Marie-France Rooney
    Key Cast
    "Anna"
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Genres:
    Thriller, Drama, Women
  • Runtime:
    17 minutes 33 seconds
  • Country of Filming:
    Spain
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    RED
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Rita Martinos

Rita Martinos' professional experience in the audiovisual industry ranges from TV series and spots, to corporate videos and commercials, to documentaries and narratives. She has worked at film festivals internationally and on projects that aired on international TV channels including PBS, Discovery ID and ARTE, among several others. Rita has experienced a vast amount of cultures, having lived in Lebanon, Cyprus, Kuwait, USA, UAE, Spain and now France. She recently produced her first feature film entitled TREVOR (dir. Carlos Domeque), and is now developing a virtual reality project as a writer and co-director, as well as the feature-film version of DEATH CERTIFICATE.

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Director Statement

I've always been drawn to psychological thriller films and books: the excitement, the unfamiliar minds, the wonder of how you didn't piece the puzzle all along, even though you were paying such close attention to every little detail – or so you thought. So, you watch it again, as I have Fight Club, Memento, Shutter Island, Se7en... And the second time around, it’s a whole
new ride.

Miscarriage is incredibly common, yet to any woman who experiences it, it is devastating - even traumatizing. The idea of losing your baby is unfathomable. I have learned that the emotions you have for your baby, sometimes starting the moment you're pregnant, are incredibly difficult to put into words. Within my
first trimester of my own pregnancy, I fell so deeply in love with my little one that I already couldn't imagine a world without him.

Many of my loved ones have undergone miscarriages - some more than once. And they barely chose to talk much about it to anyone, except perhaps their spouse. This may be because of the awkwardness that surrounds this topic: people don't know how to react, they talk about the maybe-next-times, and then - whether they admit it or not - they stop wanting to hear about it.

My debut psychological thriller as a director is intended to give these women a voice - to raise awareness of the stigmatism that goes with such a topic, to show how difficult it can be for one person to go through this, and how difficult it can be for loved ones to witness such suffering occur.

Psychological thriller is not only powerful in its thrills and entertainment aspects, but it can also help viewers understand and be aware of situations that they tend to turn a blind eye to in reality. That said, I admit I had always been rather hesitant about creating works of the genre myself. I found it safer to take risks where I wasn't afraid of failing, dive into genres that, although I very much enjoyed, didn't fill me with the same passion and thrill that I knew psychological thrillers would. In short: for years, you could get me to do anything, except this one genre I treated as my kryptonite. But at this stage, my passion has grown stronger than my fear.