LA MATERNAL

By Pilar PALOMERO

SPAFAX UK - as BUYER REP

Drama - Completed 2022

What does it mean to be a mother, what does it mean to be a child ? At 14 years old, Carla is both... Following the international success of Schoolgirls, award-winning director Pilar Palomero is back with a sensitive and heartbreaking journey into teenage parenthood.

Festivals
& Awards

San Sebastian FF 2022
Official selection Silver Shell for Best Leading Performance
    • Year of production
    • 2022
    • Genres
    • Drama
    • Countries
    • SPAIN
    • Languages
    • SPANISH
    • Director(s)
    • Pilar PALOMERO
    • Producer(s)
    • Valérie DELPIERRE (INICIA FILMS), Alex LAFUENTE (BTEAM PICTURES)
    • Synopsis
    • Carla is a wild 14-year-old girl living with a toxic single mother. One night she wakes up in a sweat, feeling ill: she discovers she is six months pregnant and is transferred to La Maternal, a shelter for teenagers at risk of social exclusion. There she meets her educators, and other teens in the same situation - Raki, Estel, Claudia, Jamila and Sheila - who take care of their babies with the help of social workers.

      At first hermetic and distrustful, she tries to learn how to be a mother when in reality, she just wants to be a child again. She is afraid of being as bad a mother as her own was. But little by little, she realizes her mum’s struggles, and motherhood eventually brings them together. As she gets closer to the group of girls with the same problems, Carla feels a little less alone in the world, soon ready to make crucial decisions.