I’ve recently had the privilege of some good cross-Atlantic Skype conversations with filmmaker Sarah McCarthy.  After significant success—including showing on HBO—with her prior documentary on children in Indian slums, Sarah turned her focus to a trio of children adopted from a Russian orphanage to a family in the U.S.

The resulting film, The Dark Matter of Love, poignantly weaves together both the ache and beauty that so often come entangled together in adoption.  It explores the wounds made by years in an institution and the steadfastness required to even begin the healing process.  At moments, I felt disturbed; at others, heartbroken.  It became clear quickly that the Diaz family who adopted the children had not fully grasped the challenges they would face, and the strain upon them is immense.

Yet the film also bears vibrant testimony to the new life that persistent love can bring to wounded children.   Like no other film I’ve seen, The Dark Matter of Love provides both stark warning as to the challenges of loving children from hard places…and windows into the beauty seen as wounds slowly begin to heal.

Little did Sarah McCarthy know as she made the film that it would also provide an account of three of the last adoptions completed before Russia’s adoption ban.

Deeply moved by the story her cameras captured, Sarah has determined to make the film more than just a powerful story.  She now desires to harness it it to advocate for the 300 Russian “pipeline cases”—children who have met their American parents but appear unlikely to be able to complete their adoption because of the shutdown.   Learn more about Sarah’s plans HERE.

The film screens at several international film festivals this summer, including Moscow’s.  It will open in some U.S. theaters later this year, but as part of the kickstarter campaign to support the pipeline advocacy, it’s possible to get an early download or DVD copy.