Sofia (312 days / 44 weeks) 01    00:13:13

Sofia | Empathy/ Lack thereof, Feeding, Helplessness, Holding/impinging (environment), Intrusion, Resilience, Survival

Sofia is moving around the floor in the living room. Shirley comes to feed her. Fia is placed sideways on Shirley’s lap and the feeding begins. Sofia eats spoonsful of butternut. She is lying back as Shirley feeds her. Shirley is clasping Sofia’s free arm. When Sofia starts to wriggle and cry Shirley asks, “Where are you going?”, “What are you doing?”. The feeding continues with Sofia showing increasing distress, arching backwards, shaking her head and closing her mouth. She is crying loudly. Other family members’ voices are audible upstairs. There are moments when Sofia is crying or showing resistance to eating, where Shirley looks at the filmmaker and smiles (uncomfortably) before continuing her feeding. At times Sofia chokes, spitting the food back and coughing. Shirley continues to feed her. After several minutes Sofia, crying, coughs up a spoonful of food and Shirley removes the bib and puts the plate down. Shirley throws crying Sofia in the air a few times. Luca enters the room to show Shirley what he has drawn. Sofia stops crying momentarily, looks around, and then continues.

Shirley tells the filmmaker that Sofia is tired and leaves the room with Sofia to fetch a dummy (pacifier). They return and sit down. Sofia begins to cry again and Shirley takes out her mobile phone and turns on the music. Sofia immediately stops crying and responds to the music, exploring the phone. Shirley places the phone inside Sofia’s baby-grow. Sofia, sitting on Shirley’s lap plays with Shirley’s ZCC badge (a sign of her religious affiliation).

Sofia is looking down at the floor and Shirley puts her on the carpet and goes to the kitchen. Sofia crawls around the floor, inspecting specs on the carpet.

NOTE: This is a difficult scene to view.

People you will meet:

Shirley House-Keeper