‘Mother’ is a distressing viewing followed by a complicated psychological portrait
There are several movies called ‘Mother’, but perhaps the best (apologizing to Aronofsky first) is one that you can completely free on RTVE Play. The psychological drama directed by Rodrigo Sorogoyen and co-written with Isabel Pena It is a film that defies expectations, especially knowing where it comes from.
The year 2017 saw the premiere of the ‘Mother’ short film, a suffocating and acclaimed 18 minutes that was nominated for an Oscar. The story focuses on a phone call between Elena and her son. On a trip through France with her father, the boy has gotten lost, and seems to be completely alone. As the tension rises, Helpless mother tries to keep child on the phone at the same time seeking all the help he can from his limited position.
Ghosts that never go away
With a chilling ending, it would be two years before we could see the continuation of this story in a feature film. The film came with high expectations, especially due to a filmography behind it that includes great national thrillers such as ‘The Kingdom’ or ‘May God Forgive Us’. The movie we saw at the time, however, was something very different. A study of characters and the theme of grief with a very mysterious protagonist.
The movie It takes place ten years after the disappearance of his son. Elena lives in France and runs a bar on the same beach where her son last called her. Far from focusing on a new tense and adrenaline-filled quest, it is a serene film that explores the psychological side of a woman who cannot finish turning the page, especially when she meets a boy who could be her son.
The film met with positive reviews, but several of them putting it in the shadow of the fabulous co-film, partly because of not being able to digest a proposal very different from what was told in that one. In El País they said it was “Mysterious, disturbing and, at times, somewhat disheartening.” In El Confidencial they wrote: “the film turns the emotional and narrative uncertainty of its central core into its best asset.” In his review for Espinof, Mikel Zorrilla delved into the difference between both works, writing that it was “a stimulating proposal and, without a doubt, very different from what we could have expected after seeing the short film.”
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