MAMA
Or Sinai
After spending fifteen years away from her family to build their future, Mila became familiar with her employer’s privileged surroundings. Working as a housekeeper, she regularly sends money to her loved ones, especially to fund her daughter’s studies. Highly appreciated, she is almost considered a family member.
However, an accident suddenly brings her back to her native countryside in Poland. Confronted with a new reality, Mila discovers that her husband’s and daughter’s lives have continued without her. The house is in ruins, her daughter no longer wishes to pursue her studies, and she realizes that she didn’t truly know their daily lives. Driven by the desire to rebuild everything, Mila finances the reconstruction of a new house and aspires to change everything, but her efforts are in vain.
Eventually, she decides to leave again, realizing that her true life is with her employers, who love her deeply.
Regarding the financial arrangement, Or Sinai explains:
“Mama was planned to be shot in Ukraine on August 2022, but then the war started. Our Ukrainian co-producer was producing one day and fighting in
the Ukrainian military the next. Of course, the situation led us to lose the production fund we got before the war. We started financing again, with our Polish partners, and before the production began, the horrible war started in Israel too. In order for us to create the film, the Mila that once was Ukrainian turned into being Polish, and in that sense Poland in the film is not just Poland, it is a metaphor to all those places that people have to immigrant from, in order to create a future for them and their families ».
The backdrop draws inspiration from the many workers who leave their countries, often trapped in a cycle where they feel neither at home nor fully belonging to their new environment. Director Or Sinai chose to explore this theme through the perspective of Evgenia Dodina, a renowned actress who agreed to play a role in the short film Anna when she was a student. In Mama, Evgenia Dodina masterfully portrays the gap between the woman she was before leaving and who she has become today, as she returns to her native village.
This contemporary drama delicately and nuancedly addresses the complexities of both internal and external exile, while also providing glimmers of hope in the darkest moments of the soul. Not to be missed.
Bigna Margaretha Grieder
