San Francisco Frontiers - Berlin film festival nurtures portraits of messy motherhood

The most star-heavy of the trio contending for the festival's top Golden Bear award is "If I Had Legs I'd Kick You", which premiered at the Sundance festival last month to positive reviews.

Rose Byrne ("Damages", "X Men") plays an exhausted therapist, Linda, whose life spirals out of control as she attempts to care for a sick daughter on her own.

Director Mary Bronstein keeps the camera uncomfortably close to Byrne throughout, cutting the child out of the frame for almost the entire film, as Linda drinks, smokes and struggles to stay afloat.

"My idea was that Linda is in a place where she literally cannot see her child for who she is: a sick little girl that needs a mother," Bronstein told reporters.

"She is avoiding that reality, and she sees her (daughter) only as an obligation, as another problem, as a thing that's victimising her."

Byrne said she had been drawn to the role in the dark-comedy drama, which has seen her tipped for Oscars success, because of its portrayal of flawed maternity.

"I'm interested in exploring, particularly through the eyes of a woman, about being a mother, which is not something you always get to see," the Australian actress explained.

Byrne is supported by a cast that includes Bronstein, late-night TV host Conan O'Brien and rapper A$AP Rocky, whose career was given a boost Tuesday when he was cleared of firearms charges by a Los Angeles court.

- 'What you do as a mother' -

Motherhood is by no means uncharted territory for Hollywood or the wider international film industry, with 1983's "Terms of Endearment" sweeping the Oscars with its plot based on troubled mother-daughter dynamics.

Spanish maestro Pedro Almodovar shot to fame with his 1999 hit "All About My Mother", while Xavier Dolan and South Korea's Bong Joon-ho have "Mommy" and "Mother" in their catalogues.

But Austrian director Johanna Moder, whose film "Mother's Baby" is also in competition in Berlin, said more gender balance in the traditionally male-dominated sector was producing fresh results.

"In the past 100 years in film, there has not been the focus (on motherhood)," she told reporters. "I suppose this is linked to the fact that women make more films now and women illustrate this story from their point of view."

"Mother's Baby" stars Swiss-German actress Marie Leuenberger in the lead role with Denmark's Claes Bang (known for 2017 Palme d'Or winner "The Square") playing an enigmatic fertility doctor.

Leuenberger's character Julia struggles to bond with her newborn baby before descending into post-partum depression and paranoia, lending the film the feel of a psychological thriller.

"She tries to love this child because this is what you do as a mother. You are supposed to be happy," Leuenberger said. "And yet her instinct tells her every single moment that she has to be vigilant because something is wrong."

The third mother-themed film is "Hot Milk" from British director Rebecca Lenkiewicz, a story of sexual awakening set in Spain overlayed with a fraught mother-daughter relationship.

Former Berlin festival winner Radu Jude, an arthouse director from Romania, also places a frazzled mother at the heart of his latest low-budget but highly contemporary movie "Kontinental '25".

Considered one of the strongest entries this year, it recounts the life of a hard-working and humane bailiff in Romania knocked off balance by an eviction that leads to suicide.

The Berlinale prize jury, headed by American independent director Todd Haynes this year, will announce their awards at a ceremony on Saturday.

A total of 19 films are competing in the main category.

Q.Taylor--SFF