Motherland (I) (2009) User Reviews

Another White capitalization of Africa

[ocacia · 1/10 · 15 August 2009]

I mistakenly went to see this film thinking it was the much anticipated Motherland - The Alik Shahadah film. I knew something was up from the vibe, and the minute the film began. Clearly it wasn't the real Motherland. OK already sitting with the popcorn and stuff so might as well keep watching. Visually after expecting something else I was naturally biased.

Isn't the image of a old white woman hugging little Blacks a little out of date? When you try to force tears from someone's eyes with a group of boring women it is a lack of artistry and sincerity. Its almost like making a film about a 1 legged HIV African boy trying to cross the Atlantic and he dies 3 miles from arriving. Now someone in the audience is going to cry and I guess one would hope that some critic gives it rave reviews and you get nominated for an Oscar. Well this film is trying to Play a big emotional card and is an utter contrived disaster.

I think the idea that you as a white liberal can just pick up a cheap video camera (without a script) and run across to Africa and try to capitalize on grief is probably the most disturbing aspect of this video (not film). And then to add insult to injury deceive people with a title as profound as Motherland.

Moving film about loving, losing and living

[molly_13 · 10/10 · 14 January 2010]

I don't usually place on-line movie reviews. However, I found Motherland to be such a moving, rich, well-done documentary film that I felt compelled to write a review.

Motherland takes a very difficult subject -- the untimely death of children -- and bravely explores the grieving process of their mothers. The film dares to do what most films, and American culture as a whole, fails to do -- it talks about death and grief in a real way. Most significantly, it gets us -- the audience -- to talk about death and grief as well. This film reminds us that grieving and mourning are processes, that these processes looks different for each person, and that sometimes simply piercing the veil of silence that frequently surrounds traumatic loss can be incredibly healing.

Setting this film in Africa was an interesting and brave choice by the filmmaker. Unlike another reviewer, I don't believe bringing American women to Africa exploited Africans or capitalized on grief. To the contrary, I think the juxtaposition of a handful of American women consumed by grief from the tragic loss of their children within an entire continent plagued by untimely death is a gentle reminder that there is always something larger than one's own self even when tragedy obscures the ability to look beyond one's own misfortune.

While I think filming the movie in Africa was powerful, ultimately, I believe this film could have taken place anywhere, because at its heart, Motherland is about the power of relating and the healing capacity of human connection.

Motherland gently and respectfully recounted the individual stories of 6 women while simultaneously telling universal stories of love, loss, compassion and healing.

I highly recommend this film.

An Enlightening Film about Healing from Grief

[JustCuriosity · 9/10 · 18 March 2009]

Motherland won the audience award at the SXSW Film Festival in Austin, TX. It is a beautiful filmed documentary about 6 women who lost their children and travel to small village in South Africa to help others and in the process try to heal themselves. By breaking out of their normal patterns they are able to begin to overcome their paralyzing grief and begin to rebuild their lives. South Africa is a country that is in itself going through a national process of healing from the wounds of Apartheid while simultaneously suffering from a devastating AIDS crisis. And yet, the simpler lives in a remote village provide the women with the space to experience joy and begin to recover from their own grief. They are also able to take solace in their shared experience of loss which allows them to begin again. This is powerful film on the shared human experience of grief. It also provides a key insight that the best of our own humanity is brought to the surface when we help others and that only by connecting with the rest of humanity helping others who are also in pain we are able to regain our own humanity. Of course, it also shows that all humans can benefit by helping others, because it brings out the best in us when we act selflessly.

The filming is well done and the women's characters and stories are well told. Their stories are told with a great degree of warmth and kindness. Also, the Ostrich scene is hilarious!

Healing

[JohnDeSando · 4 August 2009]

In Motherland, six middle-aged women facing the nightmare of losing a child is about as dramatic a documentary as could be without tipping into sentimentality and phony re-enactment. Off to Africa they go to help needy children and help themselves soothe their lingering doubts, regrets, and absurdity of losing a child to gang murder or suicide, to cite the two poles director Jennifer Steinman carefully cuts between the women with the appreciative children in the new country and the six individual stories of grief.

As in any human drama, fact or fiction, not everyone gets with the program. Mary Helena, an older African American who has suffered a stroke, takes the longest to expunge the grief and grow in the experience of healing yourself while you are healing others. Steinman edits fluidly, with the individual stories intercut with the larger context of the journey and the group rehabilitation. She spends little time with the African children who are either orphaned or suffering from AIDS. Such a tactic throws the spotlight squarely on the grieving mothers, whose healing never seems certain, a point in the filmmaker's favor. All agree the hurt can be assuaged but never effaced.

The lack of excessive emotion is also strength of the film; with no climactic moment or catharsis, the women slowly ameliorate without a false documentary denouement of hope. As always for me is the suspicion that moving moments are re-enactments. Also I am conscious of the camera's intimate journey with the women and mindful that they are different from what they might ordinarily be because of that camera's presence.

If I had my way, there'd be no intrusive camera, and wouldn't that lead to the death of the documentary as a genre?