Anna Muylaert Found International Success With ‘The Second Mother.’ The Abuse That Came Afterwards Shaped ‘The Best Mother in the World’
The first time Anna Muylaert had a film play at the Berlin Film Festival, it changed her life, and not entirely for the best. “The Second Mother,” which won the Panorama Audience Award and went on to become Brazil’s representative at the Academy Awards as well as the most popular film in the country that year, changed Muylaert’s career and catapulted her to international attention.
“The Best Mother in the World” was inspired by what came next: an unexpected wave of abuse that saw the director look at the ways women navigate the world.
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Speaking with Variety ahead of the world premiere of her latest, Muylaert says that after the success of “The Second Mother,” she gained respect from the press and the public but began to “suffer a lot of violence from those closest” to her. The director compares what happened to her to Sandra Hüller’s character in Justine Triet’s “Anatomy of a Fall” in that her relationships began to crumble once she experienced success.
“I was abused verbally, psychologically, even sexually. It was crazy,” continues Muylaert. “When my name started to grow, people began to disrespect me, something that had never happened before. I was devastated.”
This traumatizing experience was the first seed for “The Best Mother in the World,” which follows garbage collector Gal (Shirley Cruz) as she escapes her abusive husband (played by renowned actor and musician Seu Jorge), packing her two children and a handful of belongings in a cart to begin a grueling journey through the vastness of S?o Paulo. “I wanted to talk about this experience, then a close friend of mine told me about these two women who paraded around S?o Paulo with their children in trash collecting carts. I thought this image was incredible, and the story immediately popped into my head.”
Muylaert spent time with female trash collectors, visiting their houses as well as their cooperatives and learning more about their lives and challenges. One such figure made a lasting impression on the director, who recalls visiting the house of this woman and realizing the walls were made out of cardboard, and she had to ration small portions of salt when feeding her kids. “She had the noblest spirit of anyone I had ever met. I became her friend and, through her, met many women who would come to inspire the character of Gal.”
“I wanted to have an unbreakable character. I wanted to explore a type of femininity that doesn’t budge and that always finds a way to keep moving forward,” adds the filmmaker. “This is a story about respect and, most of all, self-respect and a woman who won’t allow herself to be disrespected.”
Speaking about respect, Muylaert once again brings up Triet’s “Anatomy of a Fall,” saying that watching the French film made her realize her experience as a female director wasn’t uncommon. “I’m thinking about making a documentary about female directors because after watching ‘Anatomy of a Fall,’ I became further convinced that my experience isn’t singular in being hired to do a job but then not being respected enough to do it.”
Asked if she believes the industry and the wider world have changed much in the decade since “The Second Mother,” Muylaert says she has seen great change but that she believes society has now “lost its hand” in terms of “overcompensation.”
“The world has changed a lot in the last ten years, and I think it has now become a bit exaggerated, even,” she says, going on to comment on the recent controversy with “Emilia Pérez” star Karla Sofía Gascón, who went under fire for a series of controversial social media posts to her account on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“I find it very strange that, while Trump signs off on several transphobic decrees, the world is lynching a trans woman,” emphasized the director. “She made a mistake, yes, she said some right-wing things, yes, but the dimension of the reaction feels Trumpist in a way. This woman might kill herself because of this lynching, all because of a handful of tweets. I think we have lost our hand.”
Muylaert also believes modern society still hasn’t fully understood the “political potency of the mother.” Having broached motherhood throughout several films in her career, the director says she is drawn to mothers as “political figures” and that she thinks there should be a “Ministry of Motherhood” to support women as they enter parenthood.
“The mother is the most important figure in society because she is responsible for children’s education and shaping new generations,” adds the director. “If a mother is being beaten by her husband, her son will beat his wife, or her daughter will think it’s ok to be beaten by her husband, too. It’s a lifelong cycle of violence.”
The director worked closely with Shirley Cruz on developing a physical embodiment of both the consequences of such violence and the strength of resilience. “It was a very physical work. Shirley had to go through an intense physical preparation; we worked from the idea that she was like a buffalo and that her body had to communicate that,” she says. “I admire her greatly. She is such a courageous person. It’s not a coincidence she was cast as Gal because she is a woman who won’t be disrespected, who won’t back down on her convictions.”
As for being in Berlin for the third time after playing at the festival with “The Second Mother” and “Don’t Call Me Son,” Muylaert says she is “thrilled.” “I think it’s the best festival there is because the screening rooms are ample and the sound is excellent. The projection you get in Berlin is the best you’ll ever get and audiences are very warm. I cannot wait to see how the film will look on the big screen and how it will play with audiences. I feel honored to be back.”
“The Best Mother in the World” is produced by Bi?nica Filmes, Telefilms, and Galeria Distribuidora. Galeria Distribuidora holds world sales rights.
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