“Pieces of a Woman” (2020)

Hungarian husband and wife team Kornél Mundruczó and Kata Wéber adapted their own 2017 stage play “Pieces of a Woman” in 2020, making their English language filmmaking debuts in the process. Mundruczó directs and Wéber writes the screenplay for the Venice International Film Festival premiere, which stars Vanessa Kirby as a woman who undergoes a traumatic homebirth and the loss of her child, and the painful legal battle between her family and the midwife Eva (Molly Parker). Critics were divided on the film, but the stress-inducing one shot birthing sequence that opens the film received acclaim, as did Kirby’s performance as a grieving Martha; for her work, the star of “The Crown” received BAFTA, Oscar, Critics’ Choice, and SAG award nominations. —WC