''Mother of George'' is a 2013 Nigerian drama film directed by Andrew Dosunmu and tells the story of a newly married Nigerian couple in Brooklyn who own and manage a small restaurant while struggling with fertility issues. The film was produced by Patrick S. Cunningham and Rhea Scott. The film premièred in the U.S. Dramatic Competition at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. Cinematographer Bradford Young won Sundance 2013's Cinematography Award: U.S. Dramatic for his work on this film and ''

Ain't Them Bodies Saints ''Ain't Them Bodies Saints'' is a 2013 American romantic crime drama film written and directed by David Lowery. The film stars Casey Affleck as Bob Muldoon, Rooney Mara as Ruth Guthrie and Ben Foster as Patrick Wheeler. Bob (Affleck) and Ruth ...

''. ''Mother of George'' was also selected as the closing night film at the 2013

Maryland Film Festival The Maryland Film Festival is an annual five-day international film festival taking place each May in Baltimore, Maryland. The festival was launched in 1999, and presents international film and video work of all lengths and genres. The festival ...

. The film was acquired for U.S. distribution by

Oscilloscope Laboratories Oscilloscope Laboratories is an independent film company and distributor founded by Adam Yauch and former TH!NKFilm executive David Fenkel. It also has a recording studio and film production facilities. Fenkel returned to the company on May 4, 20 ...

and was given a limited theatrical release on September 13, 2013.

Plot

The film opens with the wedding of a Nigerian couple, Ayodele and Adenike Balogun. Adenike is given fertility beads by her mother-in-law, Mama Ayo and although the couple make love on their first night of marriage, Adenike struggles to become pregnant. Despite drinking a tea that is supposed to help with fertility, Adenike is still unable to conceive and faces growing pressure from Mama Ayo. A visit to the doctor reveals that Adenike can receive help on the issue, but Ayodele refuses to cooperate. Sade mentions adoption but Adenike insists that she wants to give birth to the child herself. Mama Ayo raises a controversial option: Adenike could conceive the child with Ayodele's brother, Biyi. Biyi initially refuses to participate in the scheme but eventually gives in. Following this Adenike becomes pregnant. Ayodele believes he is the father. The guilt becomes too much for Adenike to bear, and she finally tells her husband the truth. Ayodele subsequently walks out of the marriage and confronts his mother. Adenike goes into labor, and the film concludes as Ayodele joins the others at the hospital.

Cast

* Isaach de Bankolé as Ayodele *

Danai Gurira Danai Jekesai Gurira (; born February 14, 1978) is an American-Zimbabwean actress and playwright. She is best known for her starring roles as Michonne on the AMC horror drama series '' The Walking Dead'' (2012–2020, 2022) and as Okoye in the ...

as Adenike * Bukky Ajayi as Ma Ayo *

Tony Okungbowa Anthony Victor Okungbowa (born c. 1967/1968) is an English-American actor, film producer, and DJ. He was the resident DJ for ''The Ellen DeGeneres Show'' from 2003 to 2006 and again from 2008 to 2013 when he was replaced by Stephen "tWitch" Boss ...

as Biyi *

Yaya DaCosta Camara DaCosta Johnson (born November 15, 1982), better known as Yaya DaCosta, is an American actress and model. She was the runner-up in Cycle 3 of ''America's Next Top Model''. DaCosta eventually went to star in ABC's daytime drama series ''All ...

as Sade

Reception

The film received critical acclaim. On

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

it has a 91% rating based on 45 reviews, with an average rating of 7.20 out of 10. The site consensus states "Director Andrew Dosunmu's style takes some getting used to, but Mother of George compensates with powerful acting, a thoughtful script, and gorgeous visuals." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

it has a score of 77% based on reviews from 21 critics. It has been praised for its excellent camera work, setting, and plot, although the screenplay has received some criticism. It was listed as a ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' Critics’ Pick''.''

References

External links

* * * * {{Cite news , url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/goingoutguide/mother-of-george-movie-review/2013/10/16/ba123ad6-35ad-11e3-80c6-7e6dd8d22d8f_story.html , title='Mother of George' movie review , last1=Hornaday , first1=Ann , date=2013-10-16 , work=

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

, access-date=2017-03-09 , issn=0190-8286 2013 films American drama films 2013 drama films 2013 independent films Films set in the United States Films shot in the United States Films set in Brooklyn Yoruba-language films Nigerian drama films Films directed by Andrew Dosunmu Sundance Film Festival award-winning films English-language Nigerian films 2010s English-language films 2010s American films