Viaje Al Cuarto De Una Madre Reviewed London Film Festival October 2018
Director: Celia Rico Clavellino
Cast: Lola Duenas, Anna Castillo, Pedro Casablanc
"An uneventful and quiet film, Journey to a Mother’s Room conveys a lifetime and world for both mother and daughter. Little is said and less happens and yet we learn so much..."
"This is a film in which the seemingly unremarkable leaves such an imprint."
An uneventful and quiet film, Journey to a Mother’s Room conveys a lifetime and world for both mother and daughter. Little is said and less happens and yet we learn so much about bereavement, about the mother’s struggle to manage the everyday and about her daughter’s off-screen journey to and from London in the vain hope of finding something better in life than low-paid work in a Spanish backwater.
The film takes place within the confines of a modest apartment. The furnishings are sparse, and it is impeccably clean. Great attention is given to the mundane occupations of these working-class women – clothes are mended, stitched, washed, ironed and folded, after all the mother is a reputable seamstress.
The women demand little of each other but give fathomless love. Their moods and emotions are conveyed in the sublime and unassuming performances of Lola Duenas as Estrella and Anna Castillo as her daughter Leonor. This is a film in which the seemingly unremarkable leaves such an imprint.