© WRIGHT BROS PHOTOPLAY
AMERICAN PARENT
Director—Emily Railsback
Feature, USA 2023—68min—18+
English original version
Humorous and authentic, the film shows how motherhood leaves no area of life untouched.
This feature film takes us into the everyday life of Bette, her wife Elsie, and their daughter. Humorous and authentic, the film shows how motherhood leaves no area of life untouched. As dreams and hopes shift and financial worries and fears for the future intensify, the lesbian couple searches for space for their love affair and time together in order to enjoy their still new family bliss. Societal factors, such as the Covid Pandemic, as well as an ambivalent relationship with Elsie‘s aunt, do not make this any easier for the family.
Emily Railsback (director & screenplay) and Doreen Bartoni (screenplay) have succeeded in telling a fictional story that is nevertheless authentically close to the experiences of lesbian mothers. The two have consciously incorporated documentary elements of their own experience, while at the same time giving the actors an unusual amount of room for improvisation. The result is a film that shows motherhood in an individual context and at the same time makes the collective experiences of lesbian mothers visible.