Mutter: The Diary of a Mother

Mutter: The Diary of a Mother

A terrifying horror about a monstrous creature

Gül gives birth in agony in the back of a speeding truck on an empty road somewhere along the Black Sea coast. When her husband sees the newborn, he runs away. The baby looks nothing like a human child, leaving terrified Gül alone with it. She is determined to protect her child from the world at all costs, and the world from her child. But single motherhood takes many forms, and Gül will have to face not only loneliness and the nature of her little one, but also judgment, violence, and contempt. How far will a mother go to protect what she loves?

“Mutter: The Diary of a Mother” is a bleak and terrifying Turkish horror film where tenderness and disgust often share the same frame and somehow make perfect sense together. Dread hangs over the film from the opening frame to the last. Blood-red hues, darkness, and fear dominate the screen as the film skilfully blends full-blooded horror with psychological unease, enhanced by excellent special effects and makeup. At the same time, it makes an intelligent point: the real creature is not always the thing born in the back of a truck.

“Mutter: The Diary of a Mother” was written and directed by Alphan Eşeli. Hazar Ergüçlü stars as Gül, alongside Güven Kıraç, Erdeniz Kurucan, and Ulvi Kahyaoğlu.

Alphan Eşeli is a Turkish director, screenwriter, producer, and photographer who made his feature debut with “The Long Way Home,” a story set during the 1915 Sarikamish campaign. The film won, among other awards, the FIPRESCI Prize and the Golden Zenith for Best First Feature at the Montreal World Film Festival, as well as the Best New Talent award at the Hong Kong Asian Film Festival. Eşeli is also a co-founder and producer of Istanbul’74. Outside cinema, he works as a photographer and directs music videos and commercials.