SYNOPSIS 

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In a small village in Thailand, Pomm takes care of Europeans with Alzheimer’s. Separated from her children, she helps Elisabeth during the final stages of her life, as a new patient arrives from Switzerland.
 

Pomm has sacrificed being close to her children in order to earn a better living, meanwhile in Switzerland a family prepares to say goodbye to their mother; a woman who has developed Alzheimer’s in her 50s.

Mother is an intimate and moving observation, that allows us to explore the struggles and expectations of motherhood and the frustrations of being unable to care for our loved ones.

As two narratives collide in this extraordinary coincidence, the powerful connection between patients and caregivers challenge our preconceptions. Both Pomm and her patients are trying to recover the pieces of their lives that are gone, but through love and kindness they will learn to care for each other.

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TRAILER

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PRESS REVIEWS

 

'A heartbreaking inquiry into the cost of dementia. Kristof Bilsen's stunning doc assesses the disease’s toll on patients and carers trapped in the international care-market.'

★★★★★​  Peter Bradshaw - The Guardian

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'Deeply affecting.' 
★★★★  Raphael Abraham – Financial Times

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'Poignant and eye-opening.’

★★★★  Edward Porter ​– The Sunday Times 

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(...) A radical achievement: a love letter to loss, sacrifice and yearning. It questions how we care for elderly loved ones, makes provocative contrasts between east and west in the economics of medicine, and, with a central character who’s pure charisma, this is intimate observational documentary-making of a high standard.​ 
★★★★★​ Charlie Phillips -The Guardian

(...) tackles the alarming truths behind our care home crisis in his heart-breaking documentary that sees a Swiss family sending their mother across the world to be looked after by strangers in her final years.

★★★★​ Meredith Taylor - Filmuforia

 

'A remarkable film. The film explores what real caregiving is about - authentic presence, caring relationships, and the caretaking of memories. Just a wonderful film for all of us concerned with the enormous issues of global aging.'  (Arthur Kleinman - Harvard University, and the author of The Soul of Care)


MOTHER forces the viewer to question what bliss looks like to us; a luxury getaway is the typical image of Thailand, but, in this humble care centre where cultures collide, the sanguine relationships between those present, both in body and in spirit, is infinitely moving.
Rhiannon Topham - Reel Steel

Kristof Bilsen continues to establish himself as a gifted documentary voice with MOTHER, a beautiful and sensitive character study of a Thai Alzheimer’s carer. (...) His longest and most fully formed feature to date offers a more global perspective on the neurodegenerative illness than other docs and fiction features made on the subject thus far. 
Cineuropa

MOTHER provides a powerful insight into the ethical and moral considerations around ‘outsourcing’ care.
Backseat Mafia

 

A tribute to kindness and solidarity, and also a painful register of the devastating effects of Alzheimer’s on the patients and their families.

Dirty Movies

 

PRODUCTION FACTS
 

A production by Limerick Films (BE)
in co-production with HALAL docs (NL) and Man's Films Productions (BE) 
 

Director & Producer: Kristof Bilsen

Written & developed by: Kristof Bilsen & Xan Márquez Caneda

Camera: Kristof Bilsen, Marko Milovanovic, Chutimon Sonsirichai

Sound recordist: Xan Márquez Caneda

Editor: Maarten Janssens

Sound designer & Mixer: Hugo Dijkstal

Music by: Kyle Bobby Dunn

Colorist: Olivier Ogneux
Post-production: CAVIAR Post (Steffen Geypens, Xavier Arijs)
Graphic design & Poster design: Sander Brouwer

Executive producer: Kirsten Johnson

Co-producers: Marion Hänsel, Olivia Sophie van Leeuwen

Associate producer: Steven Dhoedt

Research support by ​Pascal Decroos Fund and by SACD/Scam
Script and development support by Flanders Audiovisual Fund 
and the Creative Europe Programme - MEDIA of the European Union
 

Production support by Flanders Audiovisual Fund, Netherlands Film Fund  and Centre du Cinéma et de l'Audiovisuel Wallonie Bruxelles

Co-produced by VRT-Canvas, RTBF - Unité de Programmes Documentaires and EOdocs. In association with RTS Switzerland
 

With support of the Tax Shelter initiative of the Belgian Government
 

Developed during EURODOC 2017

International sales: Deckert Distribution

UK Distribution: Verve Pictures

Benelux: Limerick Films

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Duration: 82' / 52' - 2K DCP Dolby SR