9-Month Contract

Nine months of pregnancy for 14,000 dollars? A long friendship between director and protagonist evolves into a film about surrogate motherhood and dignity in an unregulated industry in Tbilisi.

For single Georgian mother Zhana, surrogacy is the only way to give her teenage daughter Elene a better and more dignified life. She has no education, a job as a cashier at the local supermarket, and has grown up somewhere between the orphanage and the streets of Tbilisi. In desperation, she rents her womb to foreign childless couples. 14,000 dollars for nine months of pregnancy. The amount, which at first seems large, quickly runs out and before she knows it, she is stuck in a vicious spiral. From pregnancy to pregnancy, her health deteriorates. Zhana tries to keep her growing belly hidden from her daughter, but Elene is also growing bigger and smarter, and what happens when she sees through her mother? Fear of poverty and working as a surrogate pushes her ageing body to the limit.

Ketevan Vashagashvili has portrayed the relationship between mother and daughter with trust and intimacy over many years, creating an unflinching film about a woman’s love for her daughter – and a system that is ready to exploit it.