The very title of this short movie, with its heart-wrenching brevity and warmth, strikes a chord in every soul. But right from the get-go, and without a flinch of sentimentality, the story begins with the humiliating, miserable, yet painfully routine details surrounding a funeral. We observe the parting from a person and a life and the feeling that nothing is ever the same after someone’s gone forever. Family conflicts that have been smouldering for decades, the alienation, the annoyance, the misunderstandings, the indiscretions and the lack of recognition, and the accumulation of fatigue and ennui all explode in a single moment.

A mother died and left behind her scattered belongings and a bunch of unresolved or unresolvable problems and debts. A seemingly detached son has put his studies in Denmark on hold to come back to what he ran away from—a distant father, a neurotic mother, a young sister, and friends whom he consciously abandoned. Everything he turned his back on welcomes him with a monstrous face. His mother’s relatives plunder unneeded jewellery, they fight over who’s going to take the apartment, leave his sister homeless, and send his grandpa to an “appropriate establishment.” Nothing will ever be the same. Prior conflicts seem to find a resolution, but it’s drastic, if not apocalyptic. The mother has left the living world, but her close ones can’t find peace. It seems her death forebodes the end of their world, too.

The movie presents quite a few characters that remind us of “I Don’t Want to Grow Up,” the last project by directors Katerina Lambrinova and Philip Andreev. The plot of the latter features surprisingly mature characters, whose quick lines and refrain-like appearances feel authentic and genuine. In “Mother Died Today,” the maturity angle is explored once again, since the main characters, brother and sister, seem to have wanted to grow up for a long time, but have only recently become ready to do so.

After the somewhat static beginning, “Mother Died Today” transforms into a journey around Sofia city, which adds substance to the characters through associations, memories, and feelings that go beyond the mundane. A few scenes show the siblings and their dog roaming around their hometown, revisiting places they’re fond of. The discreet dialogue introduces additional characters who are positioned accurately, albeit schematically, on the scales of life and morality. At times, they’re bluntly exposed, and at times, they’re portrayed through a more delicate lens. In the end, it seems nothing has really changed, but that’s not entirely true. The movie hints at a character transformation, although this might very well be an illusion. A part of the audience may feel disappointed with the lack of real resolution. Still, the cast of well-known actors, like Iossif Surchadzhiev, Tanya Shahova, Svetla Tsotsorkova, and Dimitar Petkov, keep the movie intriguing—their lines are few but well-timed.

“Mother Died Today” impresses with its honesty, but nevertheless feels longer than it actually is. The directors could’ve struck a finer balance between the Sofia scenery, shot in a carefully chosen colour scheme, and the dreadfully dull dialogue between the confused characters. The scene dedicated to the drug dealer, a former student of the grandpa, for example, is overly extended and descriptive. It introduces suicide as a selfish way out of life. The topic is further discussed, and yet it feels like an excerpt from a different movie, perhaps the next project the directing duo has in the works. In any case, Andreev and Lambrinova show plenty of insight into life’s paradoxes in “Mother Died Today.” What’s more important, they illustrate how grief can be both the most uniting and most divisive thing.

Материалът е изготвен
с финансовата подкрепа
на Националния фонд „Култура”.