Filmquest 26 Review: Mother and Me Explores Trauma and the Damage of Abusive Parenting

October 29, 2026 - 05:35

The directorial debut follows a heartless mother who forces her daughter to become a novelist like her late father. What begins as a story about creative ambition slowly turns into a study of control, resentment, and the long shadow cast by a parent who refuses to see their child as a separate person.

The film centers on the daughter's struggle to meet demands she never chose for herself. Her mother treats writing not as a gift but as an obligation, a way to keep the memory of her late husband alive at the cost of her daughter's own identity. The pressure builds through small cruelties and quiet manipulations rather than grand confrontations, which makes the emotional weight land harder. Viewers watch the daughter shrink under expectations, then begin to push back in ways that feel raw and honest.

The lead performances carry the film. The actress playing the mother avoids easy villainy, showing moments of grief and fear beneath the harshness. The daughter's arc moves from quiet obedience to a fragile, hard-won sense of self. The pacing slows in places, but the film's commitment to uncomfortable truths keeps it compelling.

This is not a comfortable watch. It is a film about what happens when love becomes ownership, and about the courage it takes to write your own story when someone else has held the pen for years.