“Mama,” director Or Sinai’s first narrative feature, proves the filmmaker as a keen character observer. Inspired by stories she heard from migrant Eastern European women working in Israel, the film follows Mila (Evgenia Dodina), a housekeeper for a rich family providing for those she left back in Poland. When an unexpected accident forces her home, she discovers that her family doesn’t need her as much as she thought they did. But while “Mama” is a revelatory character study of a fascinating woman, it resorts a few too many times to melodramatic flourishes that undercut where its power lies.
Above all, Sinai’s film is a social drama, concerned with its characters’ economic plight and attuned to what rights are denied to them. Mila is first shown in the big, lavish house owned by the family she serves. Her position there becomes apparent to the audience by the dismissive, though often laced with kindness, way that her employers treat her. They might claim she’s kin, but she’s obviously a servant. She takes solace in a tender affair she has with another domestic, the gardener (Martin Ogbu). These opening scenes effectively portray Mila’s state of mind and show her vulnerabilities.
The tables are turned once the action moves to the small Polish village where she came from. There, Mila is the dominating alpha over her husband (Arkadiusz Jakubik) and daughter (Katarzyna Łubik). Her money is what keeps all three afloat, paying for the daughter’s education and the building of a new house they plan to move into. Having spent years away wearing herself out so that the can afford a decent living, Mila reveals herself as a tyrant who always thinks she knows best. When she discovers that another woman (Dominika Bednarczyk) has replaced her as lover to her husband and surrogate mother to her daughter, she desperately tries to salvage her position at the top of the family
Unfortunately the film presents Mila’s plight in a series of melodramatic situations, incongruent with the well-observed character study that “Mama” has been thus far. Melodrama can serve as a way to heighten a story, but only when done right. Instead of deepening Mila’s character or showing consequences for her actions, these plot swerves manifest as a series of inexplicable decisions made by the protagonist. Prior to that, there was a heartfelt and confrontational drama happening between her and the other three characters she has to deal with in Poland. There might have been a better way to foreground the conflicts brewing between them than forcing such convoluted circumstances.
This change is especially detrimental to the daughter’s character, forcing Łubik to spend most of her performance hysterically responding to her mother’s actions. The screenplay also underserves Bednarczyk, who gives an almost silent performance yet manages to render her character fully human. As “Mama” becomes more of a mother-daughter showdown, that character disappears. Ogbu is a calming and loving presence as “the lover” (the actual character name in the press notes, showing how much the filmmakers care about this figure) but “Mama” wastes the chance to portray its only Black character as fully dimensional. He’s only there to serve the lead character, adding carnality and color blindness to her attributes.
At the center of the film lies Dodina’s commanding performance. With a fierce gaze that ruptures the screen and looks straight through those watching, she’s soulful, dynamic and powerful. Mila is complicated and headstrong, sometimes even bitter, and Dodina does not try to soften her at all. Instead she presents her in full, warts and all. Dodina never seeks the audience’s sympathy yet manages to command utmost compassion.
Matan Radin’s crisp, unfussy cinematography captures the openness of the rich family’s house in Israel with yellowish desert hues. In contrast, the smaller, cramped apartments that the characters inhabit in Poland are rendered with grayish, claustrophobic lighting. Sinai’s framing of Dodina becomes more restrictive as Mila signals her dissatisfaction, showing how the world is closing in on her and forcing her to make irrational decisions. In these instances, the strong filmmaking trumps the script’s inconsistencies.
With “Mama” many would understand why Sinai, a first time feature filmmaker, was given a berth a Cannes: this is a competent and intriguing debut. What it lacks in script sophistication, Sinai more than makes up for with her assured filmmaking and successful guidance of her lead performance.
