In American Baby, her directorial feature debut, Ellen Rodnianski sensitively conveys the climate of our time through the experiences of Oli, a 15-year-old girl living in a small Texas town. Abigail Pniowsky carries the weight of the film in portraying Oli, as the focus is tightly on her throughout, delivering an intelligent and moving performance, and imbuing her character with resilience and verve.
The screenplay, co-written by Rodnianski with Tanya Leonova, weaves forward and backwards in time, so that the viewer is confronted with Oli’s predicament from the start. Very pregnant, she has been punished for this offence by her mother, who has taken away her laptop and phone, and refuses to give her the keys to the car, making her walk to school, feeling the hostile looks of the townspeople all the way.
Oli’s mother came to Texas from the Ukraine, where she suffered abuse from her husband, and the Baptist Church helped her come to America. Devout and grateful to her new community, she is dedicated to raising her daughter as a good Baptist. Like the rest of her cohort, Oli is brought up to believe that premarital sex is immoral, and therefore given little or no information on sexuality or contraception, and an abortion is a direct route to hell. But teenagers exist in a parallel world to the adults around them, one in which emotions run high, and decision making is often impulsive. In lieu of solid information, they rely on their peers and urban legends to guide them through the confusion of emerging sexuality. Teenagers want to have fun, and when so much is officially forbidden, unofficially, anything goes.
Seeming rather shy, and inexperienced, Oli is encouraged by her more confident friend Miriam (Claire Capek) to sneak out with her to a party and to try to hook up with a boy. The film deftly shows the mixed messages and double standards that exist not only in the community, but among the teenagers themselves. When Oli falls pregnant, the community that preaches love thy neighbor, and claims to value life, shuns her.
Yet another aspect of American culture depicted in the film is that of immigration. Oli is the child of an immigrant, as is Toby (Elisha Henig), the boy she likes. Their respective families are determined to build a better future for their children, and have high expectations for them, and, at least on Oli’s mother’s part, a strong desire to belong to her new community. Yet there is a sense that both Oli and Toby are somehow marked as outsiders, they are different, and it makes them more vulnerable. Perhaps that is why they are drawn to one another.
American Baby will be screened at the Austin Film Festival and the Cucalorus Film Festival
