Get the latest gossip

‘Mother Mara’ Review: A Melodrama About a Grieving Matriarch Who Defies Convention and Rediscovers Her Mojo


In 'Mother Mara,' Mirjana Karanović gives herself challenges aplenty, including showing herself both physically and emotionally naked.

The film begins with the funeral of Mara’s son Nemanja (Pavle Cemerikić), who once shared her large, modern house, complete with its floor-to-ceiling glass wall looking out on a swimming pool and tasteful, expensive, neutral-toned furnishings. Mara’s dry-eyed appearance at the wake draws concern and gossip, but she rather coldly brushes aside the attentions of her sister (Jasna Zalica) and hurries back to the office, a place she feels is still under her control. The film’s co-producers include two directors who won awards with Karanović as the star of their first features: Bosnian Jasmila Zbanić with “Grbavica” and Croatian-Swiss Andrea Staka with “Fraulein.”

Get the Android app

Or read this on Variety

Read more on:

Photo of mother mara

mother mara