A postpartum nightmare - Taipei Times
In the short film A Dire Strait, Taiwanese-American protagonist Demi is confined to her bed, forced to eat the same food everyday and forbidden to shower. She even has to urinate in a jar, and her nightmare begins when she tries to secretly resist the rules. This “dark comedy/thriller” is actually about a ritual that most postpartum Taiwanese and Chinese women still partake in: zuoyuezi (坐月子, sitting for one month), which is meant to help their “broken” bodies recover and produce the best quality milk for their newborn. Demi’s captors are her in-laws, whose round-the-clock surv...