Mothers (Majki)

Year: 2010
Country: MACEDONIA, FRANCE, BULGARIA
Run Time: 123 minutes

From Academy Award® nominated director Milcho Manchevski, MOTHERS is a provocative and innovative film from Macedonia that blurs the line between reality and fiction. A trilogy of three seemingly unrelated stories within one multi-layered film, Manchevski requires viewers to build their own bridges. The first part of the film concerns two little girls who fabricate a story about a flasher loose in their town. When the police get involved, they ultimately create a lie bigger than they anticipated. The second part of the film tells the account of a young documentary crew who enter a deserted village to record the story of the only two remaining residents – an elderly brother and sister who haven't spoken in 16 years. Comprised of two men and a woman, a love triangle ensues within the crew. Lastly, the third part of the film is where Manchevski shatters conventional standards as his fictional film turns into a documentary about the rape and murder of a series of retired cleaning ladies, all mothers. The suspect is a journalist who commits the crimes, then writes about them the next day. An intensely engaging film, MOTHERS is not only a study on how reality is perceived and recorded, but also an examination of how women survive in a contemporary post-war culture. (In Macedonian with subtitles) – M.M.

• Tweet