Online documentary 'Motherland' covers brutal terrain

In Jennifer Steinman's online documentary "Motherland," six American women go on a mission of mercy to South Africa where they work with hundreds of children orphaned by poverty, pestilence and rampant AIDS.

But that's not the real reason they have come.

They have come to these remote South African villages seeking solace and healing.

For each woman is a mother who has lost a child to a premature death. And that loss has been so overwhelmingly dark and debilitating, the women are consumed with grief, unable to carry on their everyday lives.

This is a tough movie to watch, even if you're not a mother and haven't lost a child. I cannot imagine how tough it might be for a mother who has.

Steinman's documentary - available only on the Web and not in area theaters - shows us how these six women, mostly from California, one from Racine, Wis., come together as strangers in a strange land, then through their work with children, form a therapeutic bond that gives them an outlet for their sorrow.

"Motherland" breaks into background sections, detailing how each mother lost her child, and how that loss punched a permanent hole in her life. The children die in different ways - in car wrecks, suicide and street violence. But the mothers' feelings remain the same.

The mothers agree that working with orphans is tough. "That makes it hard when you see your kids in these kids," one explains.

Most of the women bond and start to heal. One says she feels free for the first time to be herself, to be able to cry and be sad, and not have to put on a false mask of happiness for everyone else.

But one, Mary from Racine, suffered a stroke after her son was killed, and for a while, seems to be lost to her grief and isolation.

"Motherland" is an incredibly insightful and important documentary. It's not just for grieving mothers, who already know how these women feel, but for the rest of us. So that we can witness the emotional devastation a child's death precipitates, and maybe start to understand just a tiny shard of what it feels like for a woman, a mom, to suffer the unsufferable.

• "Motherland" won't be playing at area theaters. Starting today, it is being offered exclusively on the Web at giganticdigital.com. E-tickets cost $2.99 for three days of viewing. Go to motherland-thefilm.org for details.

"Motherland"

Rating: 3½ stars

Directed by: Jennifer Steinman

Other: A Gigantic Digital Cinema release. Not rated; suitable for mature audiences. 80 minutes