Omé

Review of

(My Mother) Short Film Directed by Wassim Geagea 
FOCUSSING ON THE MOTHER FIGURE IN AN UNUSUAL WAY
This short film based around Christians in Lebanese village stars 9-year-old Elias (Jack Abboud Ed
Janah) who can’t forgive Jesus for taking his deceased mother away from him to heaven and
wonders if she is kept warm up there. He plots his own revenge against God by stealing the statue
of Jesus’s mother Mary from The Church and secretly hoists it up onto the roof of the flats where he
lives, inadvertently starting a fire. It’s not the only fire in this film and Elias attempts to confess to
the Priest in the confession box about the fact that he knows where the missing Mary is hidden
draws surprise and disbelief. Elias feels in the story that if he can’t have his mother than neither can
Jesus.
The film won the 2020 Best Fiction Film at Tampere Film Festival Finland. Director Wassim Geagea is
working on his first feature – Barka so looks out for that.
The original statue of the Virgin Mary from The Village Church keeps in the custody of Elias who
accidentally breaks and damages it before taking it to a watery grave.
Elias knows he must grow up without his mother and there are bathing scenes in the poor village
residence in metal tubs. The last bathing scene shows Elias demonstrating that he is now able to
wash himself without his father or uncles…a sign of his growing maturity.
It’s a sad film but it has light moments and is plausible. I do know it is based on fact and this part of
the life of Wassim Geagea is now documented as it meant so much to him.

Penny Nair Price