Library

La Madre

La Madre

A film by Alberto Morais

Starring Javier Mendo, Laia Marull, Nieve de Medina, Ovidiu Crisan, Alexandru Stanciu

Miguel is a 14-year-old kid pursued by Social Services. His mother, out of work and with an unstable personal life, is incapable of taking care of him. This is why she makes him seek refuge in the house of Bogdan, a Rumanian ex-lover of hers who lives in a nearby town. Everything is thrust forward when the mother suddenly disappears.

  • 2016, Durée: 1h27 - Format: 1.85 Son: 5.1

Release date

Cast

Javier Mendo

Laia Marull

Nieve de Medina

Ovidiu Crisan

Alexandru Stanciu

Crew

DIRECTOR ALBERTO MORAIS
SCRIPTWRITERS ALBERTO MORAIS, IGNACIO GUTIÉRREZ-SOLANA, VERÓNICA GARCÍA
PRODUCTION COMPANIES OLIVO FILMS
                                                FUNDATIA TEATRU CONTEMPORAN
ASSOCIATE PRODUCER PAULO BRANCO (ALFAMA FILMS)
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS VERÓNICA GARCÍA, ALBERTO MORAIS, ADRIAN LUSTIG
LINE PRODUCER EDUARDO SANTANA

DOP DIEGO DUSSUEL
ART DIRECTOR VICENTE MATEU
DIRECT SOUND DANI FONTRODONA
MAKE-UP & HAIR VICEN BETI
 WARDROBE SONIA SOLER
MUSIC VINCENT BARRIÈRE
EDITION JULIA JUÁNIZ
SOUND EDITION SERGIO LÓPEZ-ERAÑA
FINAL MIXES NICOLAS D’HALLUIN

DIRECTOR'S FILMOGRAPHY

He was born in Valladolid in 1976. He graduated in Fine Arts from the Polytechnic University of Valencia
and earned a diploma from the Department of Cinema in Valladolid, the Luis García Berlanga Master
in Scriptwriting from the UIMP and a diploma from the TAI Film School. He has produced and directed
several short films and three feature films. In 2008, he founded the production company Olivo Films S.L.


LOS CHICOS DEL PUERTO -The kids from the port- (2013)
Filmed in 2012 with three kids as protagonist: Omar Krim, Blanca Bautista and Mikel
Sarasa. It opened commercially in cinemas in 2013.


The film premiered in North America in: TORONTO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL.
Its worldwide premier was in the Main Competition of the 35th MOSCOW
INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2013 (A class). It’s been awarded with the BEST
SCRIPT AWARD in TIRANA International Film Festival, and the AUDIENCE AWARD
(Viva Lingua!) in TÜBINGEN CineLatino Film Festival, TURIA AWARD of New Director,
CINEMA AWARD of CARTELERA LEVANTE of Valencia. Afterwards it participated in such other festivals
as BFI London Film Festival, Mostra of Sao Paulo, Sevilla European Film Festival, Olympia Int’ Film
Festival and Rabat Int’ Film Festival, among others.


LAS OLAS -The waves- (2011).
The protagonists of this are Carlos Álvarez-Novoa (winner of 1 Goya award, 1999)
and Laia Marull (winner of 3 Goya awards, 2001, 2004, and 2011). It opened commercially
in cinemas in 2012.


It was awarded in the 33th MOSCOW INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2011:
- BEST FILM. Golden Saint George
- BEST ACTOR. Silver Saint George
- FIPRESCI AWARD. International Federation of Film Critics
It also participated in other festivals including the BFI London Film Festival, Lincoln Center (New York),
Sevilla European Film Festival, India Film Festival, Gijon European Film Festival, among many others.


UN LUGAR EN EL CINE -A place in the cinema- (2007).
It’s midway between fiction and documentary, with the unprecedented protagonism
of Víctor Erice and Theo Angelopoulos. It premiered in the official section of
the Sao Paulo International Film Festival in 2007, and has participated in the official
sections of festivals such as SEMINCI (Valladolid International Festival) in 2007, the
Malaga Film Festival, the Viña del Mar International Film Festival, the Rotterdam
International Festival and Bafici in 2008, among others. It won the “Asociazione La
Rinascita” award as part of the Convengo Pasolini “Una disperata vitalitá”. Un lugar
en el cine opened commercially in cinemas in May 2008.

  • Cannes International Film Festival

    Sélection Cannes Ecrans Junior 2017

  • World Film Festival of Montreal

    Official Selection 2016

  • Cannes International Film Festival

    Atelier de la Cinéfondation 2015

Alberto Morais

DIRECTOR'S NOTES

The story of Miguel is a story of a boy in a permanent state of alert, on an impossible quest for some kind of normality, with a mother already steeped in defeat who cannot confront either her own abandonment or that of her own son.


Our character, subject to social abandonment, crystallized by Services and the prosecutor of minors, and also subject to total abandonment on the part of his mother, turns to his own determination. This determination is the instinct for survival which, while helping him to escape, hide out and even work in order to subsist, is incapable of giving him what he desires most, to be just another boy his age. 

It is, in short, the story of an impossibility.


The Mother is a fiction drawn from life, from the day-to-day survival and constantly on the run. His abandonment begins with the family itself and extends to all the places he travels.

News about La Madre

La Madre by Alberto Morais in French theaters on June 14

The film started it’s path at the Cinéfondation Workshops in Cannes in 2015, has just been presented in the 2017 Cannes Screens Junior Selection. It will be released in cinemas on 14 June.

Press review

Matériel à télécharger

Subscribe to our mailing list