La Madre Muerta

The murderer Ismael shoots the owner of the house at a burglary. Her young daughter becomes a witness to the murder and the girl's gaze is imprinted on Ismael's memory. Several years later he rediscovers the same expression on the face of a teenage girl. Ismael is attracted by her and her gaze, but the fear of recognition torments him and his relationship with his girlfriend Maite becomes increasingly violent. The only solution appears to be to get rid of the witness.

COMMENTARY
A murderer breaks into a house, steals a chocolate bar, kills a mother in the presence of her daughter. Many years later: the murderer lives together with his French mistress in a sado-masochistic relationship, he recalls the daughter's gaze in the face of a beautiful psychologically disturbed teenage girl. He kidnaps her under the pretext of killing her, but the truth is he is in love with the girl.
In Juanma Bajo Ulloa's movie no one is unmistakably good or evil. He presents the characters and their actions without passing judgement. A murderer who wants the love of his victim at any cost. This beautiful and brutal story is full of irony and comedy. The killer who dresses up as a clown to make his victim laugh. But the psychologically disturbed girl is unable to speak as well as laugh. Their only connection is the frequently recurring chocolate bars.
''To speak is not important'', says one of the main characters. The dialogue in The
Dead Mother is virtually non-existent. Instead the suggestive imagery moves the action forward. The camera doesn't rest for a moment. Discreet, almost insidious - and sometimes insistently clear, it captures the brilliantly composed sequences, accompanied by Bingen Mendizabal's suggestive music.
As in Juanma Bajo Ulloa's debut feature Butterfly Wings, the film describes a separate, timeless world, with its own inner logic. The sun never shines on the desolate, cold winter landscape. The naked trees and the shades of gray contribute to a striking minimalism. Throughout the film a claustrophobic atmosphere prevails, a sense of inevitability. However, Bajo Ulloa plays a kind of cat and mouse game with the audience, who never knows what to expect around the corner. The viewer is kept on edge throughout the film. There is a constant foreboding of a murder which doesn't seem to be committed.
The 26-year-old director Juanma Bajo Ulloa usually shies away from references to cinematic history, by referring to street life, comic books and TV as his principal sources of inspiration. Or as one of the characters in the film answers to the question if he likes Francois Truffaut: ''I like all films, as long as they contain shoot-outs ... ''. ':'
Anneli Bojstad