Patiently bear the first 10 minutes that establish initial familial bliss and the reward is a stark drama of a mother split from her children by the state's response to her poverty and illness. Remarkably, the dramatic excesses of the era are avoided, and no race-to-the-rescue, instead relying on a quasi-documentary exposition paired with artful scene construction. Can't help but wonder if this was what Judith Of Bethulia was so unsuccessfully trying to achieve.