''The Dead Mother'' ( es, La madre muerta, links=no) is a 1993 Spanish drama film directed by

Juanma Bajo Ulloa Juan Manuel Bajo Ulloa (born 1 January 1967) is a Spanish film director. Biography Juanma Bajo Ulloa was born in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Álava, on 1 January 1967. His parents mortgaged their house to fund Bajo Ulloa's film beginnings. His first fea ...

which stars

Karra Elejalde Carlos Elejalde Garay (born 10 October 1960) better known as Karra Elejalde, is a Spanish actor and occasional filmmaker. Biography Carlos Elejalde Garay was born on 10 October 1960 in Vitoria-Gasteiz. He developed his early acting career on i ...

and

Ana Álvarez Ana Teresa Álvarez Páez (born 19 November 1969), better known as Ana Álvarez, is a Spanish actress and a model. Biography Ana Teresa Álvarez Páez was born in Jerez de la Frontera, province of Cádiz, on 19 November 1969. She moved to Madri ...

alongside

Lio Vanda Maria Ribeiro Furtado Tavares de Vasconcelos (born 17 June 1962), known professionally as Lio, is a Portuguese-Belgian singer and actress who was a pop icon in France and Belgium during the 1980s. Life and career Vanda Maria Ribeiro Furt ...

and

Silvia Marsó Silvia () is a female given name of Latin origin, with a male equivalent Silvio and English-language cognate Sylvia (given name), Sylvia. The name originates from the Latin word for forest, ''Silva'', and its meaning is "spirit of the wood"; the m ...

. Together with Bajo Ulloa's debut feature '' Butterfly Wings'' (1991), it contributed to the creation of an aura of

cult In modern English, ''cult'' is usually a pejorative term for a social group that is defined by its unusual religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs and rituals, or its common interest in a particular personality, object, or goal. This ...

''auteur'' around the director.

Plot

A girl, Leire, ends up as mentally impaired after being shot in the head in a domestic rob attempt by Ismael, who also kills Leire's mother (a restorer of religious images). The plot primarily concerns the ambiguous relationship between Ismael and Leire, after Ismael kidnaps Leire years later.

Cast

Production

The film is a Gasteizko Zinema production. It was primarily shot in

Vitoria-Gasteiz es, vitoriano, vitoriana, , population_density_km2 = auto , blank_name_sec1 = Official language(s) , blank_info_sec1 = Spanish, Basque , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

Release

The film was presented at the

50th Venice International Film Festival The 50th annual Venice International Film Festival was held on 31 August to 11 September 1993. Jury The following people comprised the 1993 jury: *Peter Weir (head of jury) * Mohamed Camara *Carla Gravina *James Ivory *Kaige Chen *Nelson Pereir ...

's 'Venetian Nights' section in September 1993, later screening at the Montreal Film Festival. It was theatrically released in Spain on 5 November 1993.

Reception

Ángel Fernández-Santos Ángel Fernández-Santos (1934–2004) was a Spanish film critic and screenwriter. Born in Los Cerralbos, province of Toledo, in 1934, he was the younger brother of Marxist philosopher . He studied for a brief spell at the in the early 1960s. As ...

of ''

El País ''El País'' (; ) is a Spanish-language daily newspaper in Spain. ''El País'' is based in the capital city of Madrid and it is owned by the Spanish media conglomerate PRISA. It is the second most circulated daily newspaper in Spain . ''El Pa ...

'' deemed the film to have a lower quality than it appears to display at first glance, writing that "it holds up as an exercise in the mechanics of violence by a very skilled director, but it lacks a system for embodying that violence in believable human beings", dragged by bad writing and poor dialogues.

Accolades

, - , align = "center" , 1993 , , Montreal Film Festival , , Best Director , , Juanma Bajo Ulloa , , , , align = "center" , , - , align = "center" rowspan = "4" , 1994 , , rowspan = "4" ,

8th Goya Awards The 8th Goya Awards were presented in Madrid on 21 January 1994. ''Todos a la cárcel'' (''Everyone Off to Jail'') won the award for best film. Winners and nominees Major award nominees Other award nominees Honorary Goya * Tony Leblanc ...

, ,

Best Director Best Director is the name of an award which is presented by various film, television and theatre organizations, festivals, and people's awards. It may refer to: Film awards * AACTA Award for Best Direction * Academy Award for Best Director * BA ...

, , Juanma Bajo Ulloa , , , , rowspan = "4" , , - ,

Best Cinematography This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards. Best Actor/Best Actress *See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...

, , Javier Aguirresarobe , , , - , Best Editing , , Pablo Blanco , , , - , Best Special Effects , , Hipólito Cantero , ,

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dead Mother, The Films shot in the Basque Country (autonomous community) 1990s Spanish-language films 1993 drama films Spanish drama films Films about kidnapping 1990s Spanish films