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A brand-new show begins shooting this Thursday, joining Netflix’s French lineup. The midwife-centric drama boasts premium talent and full-scale production values. Here is everything we know about the project, which does not yet have an official title.
Maternité (Maternity Ward in English, a working title) follows Maya, a midwife confronted with her own desire for a child and a partner who breaks up with her the day she finds out she is pregnant after starting an IVF procedure. Her now-ex-boyfriend also works as a doctor in the same hospital ward. According to the official synopsis provided by Netflix:
“Maya is pressured into supervising complicated childbirths with him inside the maternity ward of a seriously understaffed public hospital, itself at its breaking point. Maya then faces an impossible choice: giving birth alone, or renouncing her dream of becoming a mother.”
Izïa Higelin, starring in the 2022 French movie Takedown, directed by Louis Leterrier. Cr: Emmanuel Guimier.
The series is created by Marjorie Bosch and Sarah Farkas, with Slimane-Baptiste Berhoun serving as showrunner and co-director for part of the season alongside Keren Ben Rafael. Berhoun has yet to work on a Netflix project, but has worked as a director on a slate of ambitious French dramas over the years. This includes the high-concept sci-fi show Vortex (ordered by public broadcaster France Télévisions, which eventually became a global Netflix Original) and Paramount+’s abandoned series The Signal. Berhoun himself has teased the show on his Instagram profile, sharing what appears to be a model-size version of the proposed maternity ward set. The writing staff comprises Marjorie Bosch, Sarah Farkas, Éliane Vigneron, Elina Gakou-Gomba, and Clément Marchand. The show is produced by the young company Oberkampf Productions (a division of Mediawan), in association with Tamasha Productions and Loch Ness Productions, and is shooting around Paris and the Île-de-France area. The episode count for the first season has yet to be determined.
Who is starring in Maternité (working title)?
Izïa Higelin is set to play the lead. The multi-hyphenate has enjoyed a career in both movies and music over the past two decades, with a slew of rock albums and tours across the country, but she also found early success winning a César Award for Meilleur Espoir Féminin (Most Promising Actress) for 2013’s Bad Girl. She also appeared in the 2022 Netflix action movie Takedown, alongside Lupin‘s Omar Sy.
The cast is rounded out by Pablo Pauly, Mouloud Ayad, Manon Kneusé, Louise Labèque, Gaspard Meier, Clémentine Justine, Florence Loiret Caille (The Bureau, also a guest star in the recent French Netflix comedy Flunked), Nicolas Briançon, and Assaâd Bouab.
The project marks yet another medical drama for Netflix, a genre that seems to be in high demand for streaming slates all over the world. There is an untitled project out of Norway, a Polish drama entitled Anaesthesia, and the recently ordered drama MED out of Brazil. This joins the recently renewed drama Breathless on the Spanish side, as broadcasters and platforms look to satiate the audience’s appetite for the genre following the continued global success of Grey’s Anatomy and The Pitt.
Are you looking forward to this new French project? Let us know in the comments below!
