Mama

Directed by Or Sinai, Mama follows Evgenia Dodina’s Mila, a Polish housekeeper employed in Israel, as she journeys back home after breaking her wrist during her daily duties – with the picture subsequently (and predominantly) detailing Mila’s efforts at reintegrating herself into the lives of her husband and daughter. Filmmaker Sinai, armed with her own screenplay, delivers an exceedingly dry drama that does, for the most part, feel as thought it’s been expanded from a short, as the picture, which runs a short-yet-not-short-enough 93 minutes, progresses at a snail’s pace that’s compounded by a thin narrative lacking in overtly engrossing set-pieces and digressions – with, instead, Sinai content with offering up a slice-of-life character study anchored by Dodina’s admittedly strong central performance. And while Sinai has admittedly peppered the proceedings with a few pops of engaging drama, including (and especially) an audacious lie told by Mila to her daughter, Mama‘s perpetually uneventful atmosphere prevents it from packing the punch Sinai has obviously intended and ensures that the whole thing peters out long before arriving at its (relatively satisfying) conclusion.

** out of ****