NCLAFF: Second Mother/Que Horas ela Volta?
Location: Ackland Museum of Art, Chapel Hill
Dir. Anna Muylaert. 112 min. 2015 (Brazil)
An excitingly fresh take on some classic themes and ideas, "The Second Mother" dissects with both impeccable precision and humor such matters as class differences and family. The film centers on Val, a hard-working live-in housekeeper in modern day Sao Paulo. Val (stunning performed by Regina Casé) is perfectly content to take care of every one of her wealthy employers' needs, from cooking and cleaning to being a surrogate mother to their teenage son, who she has raised since he was a toddler. But when Val's estranged daughter Jessica suddenly shows up, the unspoken but intrinsic class barriers that exist within the home are thrown into disarray. Jessica is smart, confident, and ambitious, and refuses to accept the upstairs/downstairs dynamic, testing relationships and loyalties and forcing everyone to reconsider what family really means.