One Mother

Mickaël Bandela – Director Introduction

One Mother is a film that questions our relationship with the mother figure on three different levels, primarily foster care. For 20 years I grew up in foster care, and with this film I’m trying to understand who these women who shared me are: my foster mother, whom I call “mom”, and my biological mother. What does being a mother mean to me?

By extension, the film questions the notion of family. What does it mean to be a family? The film questions the difference in concept between the mono-nuclear Western family and the extended family as practiced in Congo-Brazzaville, against the historical backdrop of colonisation and decolonisation.

One mother  is the story of a 16-year-old African girl who arrives in France in the wake of the decolonisation of African countries like the Congo. A 16-year-old Congolese girl left to her own devices on her arrival in France, who becomes a mother too soon… Finally, the film questions the disorientation that can result from the absence of a mother figure… or should I say a guardian figure? I don’t know,