Great films teach you how to watch them. When Mary Bronstein\u2019s \u201cIf I Had Legs I\u2019d Kick You<\/a>\u201d begins, the camera remains tethered to Rose Byrne\u2019s close-ups, as she plays an exhausted mother to a sick five-year-old. The mounting pressures in her life calcify in the form of her ceiling suddenly collapsing and flooding her apartment, a chaotic mishap edited for maximum anxiety. This nerve-shredding introduction sets the stage for a movie that seldom (if ever) allows you to breathe, or break eye contact with Bryne\u2019s devastating performance during her gradual breakdown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Banned in its native Georgia, Dea Kulumbegashvili\u2019s murky medical drama \u201cApril<\/a>\u201d follows an obstetrician risking her career by performing illegal abortions for desperate women. It draws its power from visceral imagery unafraid to capture the beauty of the female form or the violence wrought upon it, starting with a live birth captured in close-up. Onscreen, a pregnant woman delivers and immediately mourns her stillborn child. In reality, a healthy baby was born to the expectant actor (whose identity has been hidden, given local backlash to the movie). This devastating tightrope walk of emotions\u2014born from the mother\u2019s performance and Kulumbegashvili\u2019s own fears while pregnant during the production\u2014leaves an indelible impact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/filmfreeway.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/12\/LEGS01_Photo-by-Logan-White.-Courtesy-of-A24-1-1024x683.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n\u201cApril\u201d: A haunting stillbirth<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n