A competent character study, Mama, from first time fictional featuring length director Or Sinai, focuses on Mila. Evgenia Dodina plays the titular character, a maid getting an injury working in the American Colony in the Near East. Because people are nothing in the Apartheid State, her bosses force her to go on vacation to Poland. Despite Poland being her actual home country, she sees a house that doesn’t feel like her own, with family members keeping her out of the loop. She finds out, through a lunch party, that her daughter Kasia (Katarzyna Łubik) quit college to bear a child. She thus tries to convince Kasia to get an abortion while keeping tabs with her lover (Martin Ogbu) in the Colony.
Mama has potential, but it squanders it by showing its viewers adages that feel played out, especially in this context. One of the moral lessons here is ‘be careful what you wish for because you hurt others to get it’. Sure, there’s a semblance of an emotional impact when Mila gets her wish, but those nuances peter out minutes later. Other than the obvious, the film’s most offensive aspect is its B-plot concerning Mila and her Afro Israeli Lover. I call him that because the movie doesn’t bother to give him a name and exists solely for Mila’s pleasure. One good thing about this film is that it shows Or Sinai’s optimism but that tendency needs a proper context.
Courtesy of TIFF
- Rated: Unrated
- Genre: Drama
- Release Date: 9/11/2025
- Directed by: Or Sinai
- Starring: Arkadiusz Jakubik, Chelli Goldenberg, Dominika Bednarczyk, Evgenia Dodina, Katarzyna Łubik, Martin Ogbu
- Produced by: Adi Bar Yossef
- Studio: Baryo, Intramovies, MoreFilms
