The Real Time Tension of Mother

Before you know it you’re clenching your fists, your heart rate is rising, and you begin shuffling in your seat. Somehow the tension from on screen has oozed into your world, creating an undesirable sensation that engulfs you. It doesn’t always happen when you watch suspense films, but when you find a good one, it sneaks up on you without your knowledge. That is exactly what happens with Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s new film Mother (Madre). It’s a film that sits with you, one you must contemplate in order to grasp what you just experienced.

In Mother (Madre), Marta (Marta Nieto) goes about a seemingly normal day in Spain. She is dealing with her mother, as most daughters do, as she puts the house back together while her young son, Ivan, is off with his father on holiday in France. Then, her world erupts when her son’s phone call turns into every parent’s tormented fears come true, a lost child.

The tension builds throughout the narrative once you become aware of what is at stake. What helps create this is the fact that you are experiencing real time emotions along with Marta. This means the minutes that pass on screen pass off screen at the same rate, as if you are in the apartment with her. Sorogoyen carefully crafted this mimicry, and in his eyes was a gift that was born during production.

“The gift or flair of the story is what makes the movie succeed. What you see it's what you get as real. Both actresses are feeling and expressing themselves in that moment, right there right now, opening up to the present,” Sorogoyen explains. “Therefore, the shooting itself is what brings about more reality to the movie. That's why I absolutely support 'real-time' shootings, or scenes.”

His expertise in this method of shooting is the success behind the time. It’s a difficult task creating a robust story in such little time, and Sorogoyen recognized that several elements, along with the story itself, must meld together to create the perfect outcome, that which is Mother (Madre), which includes set design and cinematography.

For the apartment, Sorogoyen created a clean open space. Large windows that welcomed light into a decluttered yet lived-in apartment for a single mother and her child. The fresh visual space is the antithesis of the gut-wrenching story unfolding. It seems that fate intervened as the perfect apartment appeared when the production team needed it to.

“Everything feeds off everything else. All of a sudden, you have a perspective, an open plan house, and white ceilings. In Spain, we work a lot in this way; everything comes together slowly but surely,” Sorogoyen adds. “One co-exists with the story, you co-exist with the crew and little by little everything begins to take shape, and that is the magic of the cinema.”

This magic of Mother (Madre) is translated by the visual experience the audience has as they are engrossed in the film. The cunning way the camera moves around the apartment, around the life Marta and her son have built is so subtle that you believe you are anxiously pacing with the women as they try to figure out what to do to Ivan. In the middle of the building tension, the audience realizes the camera has been continuous, and the creativity of the cinematography blends with the tone of the film. This wasn’t by accident, for Sorogoyen spend time crafting the world he wanted to establish.

“Everything is based on the rehearsals. For such a complicated shot over such a long period of time, so much so that the entirety of the short (95% of the story) has to be extremely well choreographed,” Sorogoyen explains. “It is during the rehearsals that you can find new material, fresh reactions and new camera movements, so that when the shooting begins everything is as tied down as it can be.“

No matter how perfectly sculpted the technical aspects of a film may be, the heart of the movie lies with the emotions created by the actors on screen. In the right hands, a short film elongates when the audience connects with the lead. The lead in Mother (Madre), the incomparable Nieto, not only holds the tension but also our heartache. For those familiar with Spanish entertainment, Marta Nieto, most recently seen in the series Verguenza, is an actress of note. Sorogoyen was able to expand her filmography and let a natural talent loose in her environment.

“It is true that she has never had such a big role to play and the result speaks for themselves, it is all too clear she is an actress of incredible talent,” Sorogoyen says.

The catastrophic situation we find Marta in is one that could happen, no matter how much we try to prevent all tragedy where our children are involved. This is where Sorogoyen found inspiration for the story, through one of his friends who experienced a similar situation with her child.

“What lasted three minutes in real life, in our short film is lengthened to a tragedy with maximum tension. It seemed to me to be very powerful material for a thriller with very few elements, for a thriller, which begins in a very everyday situation and ends in the huge emotional rollercoaster ride of the protagonist,” Sorogoyen adds.

When using real life situations as inspiration for art, you may have the outlines of the story established, but you are also allowed creative freedom to expand in a way your vision allows. In a way, it’s the best of both worlds. You are able to create a work of art that is ground in reality. Beautiful visuals can make a good movie, but a great movie relies on the emotions we connect to throughout our time with the story and her characters.  

However, this may cause a pull in the direction you want to explore. The ending of Mother (Madre) brought up an interesting conundrum for Sorogoyen, did he want to direct his beloved character into a horrific ending or provide a happy one?

“In the beginning, it's kind of complicated when you are so deeply involved with the grief and sorrow of the main-character, and so implicated on creating an emotional suffering,” Sorogoyen adds. “Thus, you need to have the guts to put yourself at risk and be very professional with the direction of the outcome. You're getting used to that 'thrill' as you're writing the story, attached to it, that you become anesthetic to the emotional turmoil of the characters.”

This may seem harsh, but the focus stays on the story you are trying to create and not protecting the characters. The attention to detail, to emotions at the core of the story make Mother (Madre) a beautiful film full of suspense.

Written by Lisa Mejia
Images provided by London Flair PR