This Mother’s Day, we asked our team, friends, followers and allies for their favourite films (written and/or directed or based on a book by a woman) which depicts mother figures and motherhood in all of its myriad and motley forms.
Here’s an amazing curation of films, why they were chosen, and where to watch them. Thanks to everyone who contributed.
GERMANY PALE MOTHER directed by Helma Sanders-Brahms – discovered this one thanks to Mark Cousin’s WOMEN MAKE FILM. I’d heard of it before but it was thanks to the arresting clips in this seminal documentary of female directors that I sought out the film and found also that it was newly added to BFI Player, and I was blown away by it on so many levels – Sanders-Brahms reconstructs in fictional narrative the very personal story of her mother Lene (Eva Mattes). The film is narrated in voiceover by Sanders-Brahms herself. It’s staggering in its ambition, its pathos, its bravura style – Mia Bays – Birds Eye View
Wadjda by Haifa al-Mansour, while from the outset Wadjda’s mother is one of the villain’s in her daughter’s life – she is after all the only thing which stands between her and her bicycle. But as the difference between their outside and inner family lives becomes more evident so does the close bond between mother and daughter. The film depicts the usual dynamic that we see in films like Real Women Have Curves and Ladybird – one where disagreements and conflicts hide the deep concern of daughters making the same mistakes their mother’s most certainly once made. Isra Al Kassi – Birds Eye View
Postcards From the Edge – based on Carrie Fisher’s semi-autobiographical bestseller. I read the book in my early-twenties then saw the film, adapted by Fisher herself, when it came out a few years later. Shirley MacLaine and Meryl Streep’s, sometimes fractious, mother-daughter relationship (“laced with a morning-after sense of humour”) is full of love and laughter. I’ll be watching it again on Mother’s Day – Simone Glover – Birds Eye View
UNDER THE SKIN by Carine Adler The film is about two sisters and how they each deal with their mothers death. They are called Iris and Rose. Their mother loved flowers. This film is so potent you can smell them. – Deborah Haywood
The Body Beautiful by Ngozi Onwurah – I saw it when it first came out and was so touched by it, it is still amongst my most favourite – Andrea Luka Zimmerman
Grey Gardens by Albert and David Maysles, Ellen Hovde & Marion “Muffie” Meyer – for showing us some of the most intimate and unexpected moments between a mother and a daughter in documentary film – Paul Sng
Andrea Arnold’s Wasp and Herself written by Clare Dunn and directed by Phyllida Lloyd. They both witness different sorts of struggle for single mothers – Brendan O’Neill
Lady Bird – Greta Gerwig. As a daughter, and as a mother, Lady Bird really resonated with me as the depiction was so well observed and at times almost painful to watch, as I identified at different times with Lady Bird’s character and that of Marion, and grew to love them both during the course of the screening. Mothers – they drive you mad when you are young (and beyond, at times) but all they want is the best for you, and as you get older you realise this. Lady Bird does a fab job in portraying this in a funny and sensitive way, while not shying away from the harsh realities of life – Sara Gunn-Smith
Lady Bird’s mother daughter relationship really captured the mix of friendship, frustration and guilt that comes with being a teenager wanting to get as far from your childhood home as possible without wanting to hurt the ones that have worked so hard to make that home possible. Greta Gerwig’s script was so specific in time and place but it felt like it was written just for me – and my mum – Bryony Forde
Greta Gerwig’s ‘Ladybird’ for showing the complexity of the mother / teenage daughter relationship. The scene where they are shopping in the thrift store for a dress for Ladybird is priceless – Anna Southgate
Capernaum co-written and directed by Nadine Labaki. I’ve chosen this deeply moving film which depicts the two sides of motherhood. On the one hand, Zain is ill-treated, unloved and is nothing more than a commodity to his parents, whereas baby Yonas is loved and fiercely protected by his migrant mother, who also later becomes a mother figure to Zain – Betsy Wilce
My immediate thought is not of mothers but matriarchs – particularly the majestic Nana in Julie Dash’s Daughters of the Dust. “I am the first and the last… ‘I am the silence that you cannot understand. I am the utterance of my name” – . It is such a profound film about a matrilineal African American community – Lizzie Francke
Mermaids (screenplay June Roberts) Cher and Winona Ryder are fantastic. I watched this film a lot as a teenager when Ryder was my hero and I think of it still every time I use a cookie cutter to make my kids’ sandwiches into heart and star shapes – Michelle Reynolds
Yang Lina’s Spring Tide really touched a few of my pain and pleasure points when thinking about the mother-daughter relationship dynamic. The characters are somewhat extreme, but the lurking neurosis, fuelled frustration and abject apathy are seeded from a truly authentic place that I understand. The familiarity, closeness, and brittleness are beautifully rendered – Toki Allison
JUNO (written by Diablo Cody). The unborn child, the pregnant mother. A key performance from Elliot Page as a teenager dealing with a surprise pregnancy and how they cope with adult life at short notice. Superb support from Alison Janney and Jennifer Garner (alongside Michael Sera, JK Simmons and Jason Bateman). Criticised for being pro-life on release, Page stated at that time that this was “absurd” as the choices are laid out on screen within the story. A comedy, a family drama, and all held together by a brilliant score courtesy of Kimya Dawson and her band The Moldy Peaches – Philip Ilson
Mary Poppins (based on the book by PL Travers) I really loved this film when I was a kid. You could argue that Mrs. Banks is absent in her children’s lives at the beginning of the film – but that is only because she is out fighting for women’s suffrage! Meanwhile, Mary Poppins is a kind and loving mother figure – which goes to show that sometimes it can take a village to raise a family – and that good Mums can come in all different guises, shapes and sizes! – Alex Marx
I’ve chosen Lisa Cholodenko’s The Kids Are All Right for its warm and witty depiction of raising children in a same sex relationship. It’s one of those films that I can watch again and again (and still tear up at the same moment every time) and is pretty under rated in my opinion – Lia Devlin
I’m selecting WHAT HAPPENED, MISS SIMONE by the great LIZ GARBUS. Not only a beautiful portrait of one of our greatest musical artists, it is also a daughter’s story and one in which she is trying to celebrate and reveal things to the world about her mother that may have been forgotten or overlooked because of the fame or controversy surrounding Nina Simone. Lisa Simone Kelly (and the film) does not flinch from the hard truths but she also testifies to courage and strength and forgiveness and the pride she carries of her mother’s legacy – Stephen Kijak
For Sama is an incredible documentary film letter from director Waad Al-Kateab to her daughter, Sama to justify why she stayed in Syria while their city was being destroyed by bombs. It’s a powerful testament of a mother’s love for her child as war erupts around them – Eleanor Mortimer
For Sama, because I can’t imagine Waad telling this story the way she does if she weren’t a mother, the whole film is seen through the lens of a mother’s love for her daughter, in spectacularly difficult circumstances. We see Waad’s hope for the future of the Syrian people through Sama – Wendy Mitchell
For Sama – Waad al-Kateab’s unflinching portrait of civil war in Syria as a new mother is extraordinary both for her courage and her insight. The vignettes she captures are unmistakably a female gaze – Pip Eldridge
Moufida Tlati’s ‘The Silences of the Palace’ (1994 Tunisia) This is a difficult but stunningly beautiful film, that captures the complexity of inherited and shared trauma between a mother and daughter. There is no blame upon the mother in the director’s gaze, and there is no shame – and much joy – among the working class palace staff. It’s a truly complex, heart-breaking gem – Kit Griffiths
*The Silences of the Palace is not streaming nor available to rent or purchase
It’s got to be Prevenge (Alice Lowe) The most original, hilarious and shocking take on motherhood and being pregnant – unforgettable and brilliant – Naomi Wright
E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (Melissa Mathison) because it’s core subplot is the demands & strains of single motherhood. She’s a complex woman doing her best & that’s very rare in Films of this era – Anna Higgs
Love child by Eva Mulvad, it’s an engrossing exploration of what means to be a mother, a refugee, immigrant in another country and to fight patriarchy. A true story that puts you in her shoes – Melli Paola
Room (written by Emma Donoghue) with Brie Larson giving an amazing performance – Andy Simpson
Suzanne, Suzanne (Directed by Camille Billops and James Hatch) – Ashley Clark
The Babadook (Directed by Jennifer Kent) – Jessica Levick
Erin Brockovich (screenplay Susannah Grant) – Emma Swinton
Chantal Akerman: No Home Movie – and Marta Meszaros: Diary for My Children – Claire Barwell
*Diary for My Children This video is currently unavailable to watch in your location
