Hoping to start a new life away from the city and all the bad memories it holds, a young Jewish mother (Emilie Cocquerel) uproots her children and partner and moves to a family property at the base of the sacred Gulaga, or “Mother Mountain”.
Learning to breathe again while they work through their troubled past, the family find themselves connecting with the land, the people, and each other in ways they’d never imagined possible.
Set against a beautiful backdrop of regional Australia, Mother Mountain is an interwoven narrative of traumas. The generational conflict between our protagonist Selene, her controlling mother Linda (Anne-Louise Lambert) and strong-willed daughter Shani (Willow Speers) is tied to a longing for freedom and for home, a yearning that is as intrinsically tied to their Jewish heritage as it is their need for independence.
Writer/director Celina Stang tells a deeply personal story with this exploration of family and identity. Filmed in Narooma, Tilba and Bermagui on the lands of the Yuin Nation, the shared struggles of the Jewish and Aboriginal communities are touched upon in way that feels both heartfelt and well-meaning.
Newcomer Willow Speers steals much of the film, her performance is solid and believable as the wise-beyond-her-years Shani, forced to take on the role of caretaker while her unreliable and deeply unhappy mother attempts to claw her own way back to some semblance of peace. Emilie Cocquerel throws everything she has into the flawed Selene. Her struggle to process her emotions along with her reckless decision-making means following her journey is at times a frustrating endeavour, but there’s no faulting the actress’s conviction. The story itself ties up in too neat a resolution for the various streams of conflict it attempts to address, but nevertheless it’s an absorbing family drama with enough heart to make an impact.
Releasing in cinemas on April 28, 2022 following screenings at the Gold Coast Film Festival