Mother's Baby

With striking precision and heartfelt empathy, Johanna Moder’s MOTHER’S BABY skillfully delves into the ambivalence and existential upheaval that childbirth can mean for a mother by courageously addressing one of society’s most enduring taboos: postnatal depression. The filmmaker also raises bold, complex questions around the ethics and emotional implications of artificial insemination. Maria Leuenberger embodies the suffering, passionate and increasingly isolated mother with fragile elegance as she plays Julia, a young, successful conductor in Vienna—happily married, yet longing for a child. Charming Dr. Vilfort and his high-tech clinic offer hope through a revolutionary method, but the birth doesn’t go as planned, and Julia’s world begins to crumble. Her bond with the baby wavers between alienation and concern as she grows ever more alone and misunderstood. Friends become enemies, and Moder’s meticulous visual language underscores this estrangement: cold blue-grey tones, pale lighting and large glass panes encase Julia within an emotional aquarium. What begins as intimate drama gradually slips into a psychological horror story, culminating in a final image that is as haunting as it is unforgettable. (Maria Giovanna Vagenas)

In the presence of Johanna Moder and on October 18th of Marie Leuenberger, Claes Bang Julia Franz Richter (actors), Oliver Neumann and Sabine Moser (producers).

AUDIO DESCRIPTION FOR BLIND AND VISUALLY IMPAIRED PEOPLE
Audio description will be provided for the screenings. More info here.

Johanna Moder: HIGH PERFORMANCE (2014), WAREN EINMAL REVOLUZZER (2019)