MOTHER'S BABY
Austrian director Johanna Moder (HIGH PERFORMANCE, ONCE WERE REBELS) delivers a darkly humorous take on the horrors of motherhood with this taut psychological thriller exploring the unsettling edges of the postpartum experience. When Julia (Marie Leuenberger), a successful orchestra conductor in her 40s, conceives a child under the supervision of an enigmatic fertility doctor (Claes Bang), the birth is far from ideal. Julia is separated from her newborn without explanation, and when they are finally reunited, she is gripped by the unshakable fear that the baby is not hers. What begins as a grounded domestic drama gradually morphs into a surreal, satirical, slow-burn thriller, where reality and postpartum paranoia start to become indistinguishable. Masterfully blurring the line between psychological fragility and institutional gaslighting, Moder uses sterile clinic settings, eerie soundscapes and disorienting time lapses to evoke Julia’s spiraling doubt — and recreate the same sensation for the viewer. Taking cues from ROSEMARY’S BABY, Moder’s genre-defying blend of maternal horror, social critique and dark satirical humor resists easy answers, instead offering a smart and self-reflexive meditation on identity, maternal instinct and the vulnerability of women caught in systems that ostensibly promise care while covertly exerting control. –Abbie Algar
Official Selection, 2025 Berlin International Film Festival, SXSW London and Galway Film Fleadh.
DIR/SCR Johanna Moder; SCR Arne Kohlweyer; PROD Sabine Moser, Oliver Neumann. Austria/Switzerland/Germany, 2025, color, 107 min. In German with English subtitles. NOT RATED
Run Time: 107 Minutes
Opening Date: Friday, December 12, 2025
Genre: Mystery thriller
