SECOND MOTHER, The

"Regina Casé delivers a stunning performance in Anna Muylaert's riveting drama." – Hollywood Reporter

Convention and chaos collide in this incisive crowd-pleaser from director Anna Muylaert (Durval Records, MIFF 2003), a film that resonates as both a warm family drama and a humorous look at Brazil's class system.

Middle-aged Val is a housekeeper for an upper-class São Paolo family, to whom she's become a kind of surrogate mother and confidante to their 17-year-old son. But when Val's estranged, college-bound teenage daughter arrives to stay – with little regard for the established master-servant dynamic – the household hierarchy soon gets turned upside down.

Energised by beloved Brazilian star Regina Casé's lead performance and Muylaert's astute writing and direction, The Second Mother won the World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award for Acting at Sundance and the Panorama Audience Award at the Berlin Film Festival.