70 min. feature film, color, 2K, DCP, 2023, Estonia

Logline

„Mamma, see how I dance! Mother, see me slitting my throat!“

MO MAMMA is a drama full of feminine absurd, where mother and daughter drown in a passionate and endless desire to understand each other.

SYNOPSIS

Mother (Karin) and daughter (Mari) are facing the demise of Mamma, Karin’s mother and Mari’s grandmother. They both release their pain on each other, but in unconditional love, everything is allowed.

Karin and Mari take a taxi home at night. Mari starts to pick on her mother who had given her phone number to a random dude in a strip club. Karin denies. It seems to Mari that once again, Karin denies everything bad that has happened in her life. She recalls her mother giving her a beating when she was five. Hearing that, Karin decides to leave the taxi. Mari rides on alone.

At Mamma’s home Karin and Mari are preparing for her departure, Mari’s anger grows into hysteria. She blames her mother on everything, says she will cut off her toe that is so big she has to buy a new pair of shoes every year. Karin, too, loses her nerve, lets her emotions to erupt and wants to tear down Mamma’s house. Nothing is enough and well, she, Karin, is always to blame!

Next day, both act as if nothing had happened. It makes perfect sense: Mamma is about to pass and this is causing some tension. For Karin, it’s important to make sure that both Mamma’s and Mari’s life would be good: that Mamma had the prettiest house in the village and Mari had decent husband and child. Mari, on the other hand, does not understand why everything has to be in such perfect order – it oppresses her.

On the backdrop of mother and daughter seeking closeness and mutual understanding, there are bits archive footage of Mamma, showing her peaceful healthy everyday life. MO MAMMA is a bittersweet homage to Mamma, full of feminine absurd.