To celebrate and honour the mother of the family or individual, as well as motherhood, maternal bonds, and the influence of mothers in society, we’ll be revisiting some of the films we have enjoyed and supported that feature mothers.
PETITE MAMAN (2021)
By Céline Sciamma
★★★★ “A poetic, touching vision of childhood” Time Out
PETITE MAMAN is a sublime modern fairytale about the quiet wonder of mother-daughter relationships. After the death of her beloved grandmother, eight-year-old Nelly meets a mysterious friend in the woods. Together they embark on a fantastical journey of discovery which helps Nelly come to terms with this newfound loss. A favourite of the 2021 Berlin Film Festival, Sciamma’s new masterwork examines childhood, memory and loss with a typically delicate touch, elegantly weaved together into an enchanting and moving depiction of love and acceptance.
This latest offering from Sciamma feels like a much-needed warm embrace, leaving both protagonist and audience in a good place.
The Birds Eye View team loved this quiet, contemplative look at loss, grief and memory seen through the eyes of an eight-year-old girl. This smart, moving, emotionally intelligent (and, ultimately uplifting), perfectly paced ghost story come fairy tale is, like everything Sciamma touches, authentic, original and refreshing. In less capable hands we might easily be subjected to over-sentimentality. Sciamma never subjects her audience to this – she never tells us how we should think or feel – she shows, she doesn’t tell. She goes deep rather than wide and trusts herself, and us, to join the dots.
Click HERE for where to watch
GERMANY, PALE MOTHER (1980)
By Helma Sanders-Brahms
Set during the Third Reich and its aftermath, this lyrical, harrowing tale of love and war is a neglected classic of New German cinema. Hans and Lene scarcely have time to meet and marry before Hans is sent away to fight, leaving Lene to give birth during an air raid and struggle through the war with a baby daughter. Based on director and writer Helma Sanders-Brahms’ mother’s experience, the film explores the devastating impact of politics of family life.
Eva Mates (Lene) gives a brilliant, fearless performance, with the film casting a powerful emotional spell which is intensified by a delicate, plaintive piano score. German critics savaged the film at its premiere, baulking at its ‘subjective’ female take on recent history. Cut by 30 minutes for cinema release, only now has it been restored to its impressive original form and available for home viewing.
Click HERE for where to watch
MEMORY BOX (2021)
Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreigeige
Maia, a single mother, lives in Montreal with her teenage daughter, Alex. On Christmas Eve, they receive an unexpected delivery: notebooks, tapes, and photos Maia sent to her best friend from 1980’s Beirut. Maia refuses to open the box or confront its memories, but Alex secretly begins diving into it. Between fantasy and reality, Alex enters the world of her mother’s tumultuous, passionate adolescence during the Lebanese civil war, unlocking mysteries of a hidden past.
Click HERE for where to watch
Click HERE for Elise Hassan’s commissioned piece
The film is French, Arabic, English language with subtitles and is also available with subtitles for those who are D/deaf or hard of hearing.
Learn more about the film HERE.
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THE SECOND MOTHER (2015)
By Anna Muylaert
Having left her daughter, Jessica, to be raised by relatives, Val works as a loving nanny in São Paulo. When Jessica visits 13 years later to take her college entrance exams, her confident presence upsets the unspoken power balance in the household. Soon, Val must decide where her allegiances lie.
Click HERE where to watch
GUNDA (2020)
Co-written by Ainara Vera
Experiential cinema in its purest form, GUNDA chronicles the unfiltered lives of a mother pig, a flock of chickens, and a herd of cows with masterful intimacy. Using stark, transcendent black and white cinematography and the farm’s ambient soundtrack, Master director Victor Kossakowsky invites the audience to slow down and experience life as his subjects do, taking in their world with a magical patience and an other worldly perspective. GUNDA asks us to meditate on the mystery of animal consciousness, and reckon with the role humanity plays in it. Executive produced by Joaquin Phoenix.
The whole Birds’ Eye team loved this simple yet powerful film – which is all the more devastating because you know what’s coming. Right up to its tragic denouement, the film’s sensitive and contemplative black and white imagery slowly builds empathy with the ‘free range’ animals on the farm as they go about their lives amongst their natural surroundings. The film’s titular character, is closely observed mothering her litter of hungry piglets. Spending time with Gunda and her young shows us just how intelligent, sociable and curious pigs are. After becoming so close to these fascinating animals over 80 minutes, the extended final scene hits hard – this incredibly moving sequence will test the resolve of even the most committed carnivore.
Click JustWatch HERE for where to watch Gunda.
EVE’S BAYOU (1997)
By Kasi Lemmons
Eve’s Bayou is a 1997 American southern gothic drama film written and directed by Kasi Lemmons, who made her directorial debut with this film. Samuel L. Jackson served as a producer, and starred in the film with Lisa Nicole Carson, Jurnee Smollett, Lynn Whitfield, Debbi Morgan, Meagan Good and Diahann Carroll.
Over the course of a long, hot Louisiana summer, a 10-year-old black girl, Eve Batiste (Jurnee Smollett), discovers that her family’s affluent existence is merely a facade. The philandering of her suave doctor father, Louis (Samuel L. Jackson), creates a rift, throwing Eve’s mother, Roz (Lynn Whitfield), and teenage sister, Cisely (Meagan Good), into emotional turmoil. Eve, though, manages to find some solace with her quirky psychic aunt, Mozelle (Debbi Morgan).
Click HERE for where to watch
THE LOST DAUGHTER (2021)
By Maggie Gyllenhaal
Maggie Gyllenhaal makes her directorial debut from a script she adapted from the novel by Elena Ferrante.
A woman’s seaside vacation takes a dark turn when her obsession with a young mother forces her to confront secrets from her past.
Click HERE for where to watch
Click HERE for a reminder of Flora Spencer Grant’s review
HERSELF (2020)
By Phyllida Lloyd
Struggling to provide her daughters with a safe, happy home, Sandra decides to build one – from scratch. Using all her ingenuity to make her ambitious dream a reality, Sandra draws together a community to lend a helping hand to build her house and ultimately recover her own sense of self.
Currently you are able to watch “Herself” streaming on BFI Player, BFI Player Amazon Channel. It is also possible to buy “Herself” on Apple iTunes, Google Play Movies, Amazon Video, Microsoft Store, Sky Store, YouTube as download or rent it on Apple iTunes, Google Play Movies, Amazon Video, Microsoft Store, Sky Store, Curzon Home Cinema, YouTube online
Click HERE for where to watch