Written and directed by Elias Suhail, a single mother in Morocco, trapped in a mundane existence, confronts her dreams and fears, leading to the agonizing decision to forsake all she knows, even her children. Starring: Nisrine Adam, Hamid Sabek and Fatiha Zouine.
Entering Beneath a Mother’s Feet there’s quickly a great tension and sense of curiosity and mystery. Elias Suhail completely opens up the atmosphere to a wide range of potential avenues for this story to venture into. Suhail then employs a brilliant use of close-up, detailed shots to inject a sense of dread or fear into the air. All of that works together to truly draw you into this story and it’s something Suhail achieves consistently throughout.
There’s a lot of clever choices throughout this short but one particularly good example is how Suhail brings the idea of patriarchy and suppression into the mix. You could completely ignore what we already know about society and find those themes in purely two words and a change in body language. It’s those types of thoughtful choices that really strengthen Beneath a Mother’s Feet.
Within the following few moments, the story opens up a rabbit hole of emotions and struggles, especially the idea of finding such isolation and disconnection within an intensely scrutinised environment. Having a constant pressure yet being relentlessly undermined and given little freedom of choice. You have to give a lot of credit to Suhail for how he explores these tricky, complex topics within fifteen minutes and with relatively minimal dialogue.
Part of that is the confidence that Beneath a Mother’s Feet displays, there’s a few riskier choices here and there but the way that they’re introduced makes them feel perfectly natural. Everything is woven together really well to the point that although there are a number of questions that it will never answer, it’s still a satisfying experience. Particularly because it has an excellent, strong presence, in no small part due to the performance from Nisrine Adam.
Adam gives us an extremely relatable character, she’s utterly easy to sympathise with but also has some layers to peel back. The way that she delivers this performance is an exploration of the psychology of Wedad. It’s not just about her present, she’s inviting you to contemplate her past, giving you clues to what she’s been through up to this moment. She has a great intensity and much like the short itself, everything is very thoughtful.
Beneath a Mother’s Feet creates a clever, nuanced exploration of motherhood, using genre in an effective, thoughtful way. It’s tense, curious and intriguing but the style is also pensive and layered. Each element is working together so smoothly to create an enthralling atmosphere, with just the right amount of intensity.
It captures the themes and emotions to this story while also adding a slightly unusual edge and a fantastic amount of tension. On top of being led by a terrific performance from Nisrine Adam. The fact that this short marks the directorial and screenwriting debut from Elias Suhail is sincerely impressive, there’s clearly a great deal of talent at work here.
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