How ‘My Mother, the Monster’ Was Inspired by a Photo of a Woman Walking in a Forest Wearing a Scary Mask

The idea for My Mother, the Monster, which won the Eurimages Co-Production Development Award at Sarajevo Film Festivals CineLink Co-Production Market Thursday, came to Hungarian director Olivr Rudolf three years ago after seeing a picture of a woman walking in a dark forest in the middle of the night and wearing a scary monster mask.

There was a tension between this harsh mask and the vulnerability of the person wearing it, so I wanted to find out who was behind that mask and examine more the mother [underneath it], he says.

Rudolfs debut feature comes on the heels of his graduation film Fonica M-120, which played in Cannes Cinfondation in 2020. It tells the story of va, a mother in her forties who, disappointed with her life and tired of her own insignificance, finds a new identity behind a scary monster mask that eventually liberates her.

Besides looking into the age-old subject of motherhood, Rudolf also wishes to touch on the topic of the queer and drag queen communities in Hungary. While wandering through Budapest, his protagonist will discover a gay bar with a welcoming drag queen community and her principal ally there will be a drag queen going by the name of Svetlana. It seemed really obvious when we were writing the script that this is the community that accepts everybody, he explains.

Producer Genovva Petrovits of Hungarian production outlet Kino Alfa says that after Rudolfs participation in various incubator programs and script residencies, including Tatino Films Full Circle Lab, the projects participation in the CineLink Co-Production Market has been an invaluable opportunity for Rudolf, French co-producer Florent Coulon from Vrai Vrai Films and herself as they need more co-producers to get the project off the ground after funding from the Hungarian National Film Institute fell through.

This led them to team up with local producers Gbor Kovcs and gnes Pataki from Filmpartners in a bid to raise additional local private funds.

We aim to shoot in September 2024. We therefore need to be as quick as possible with the financing process, so the Eurimages Co-Production Development Award is something really helpful at this stage, Petrovits says.

The producers are Petrovits and Barnbas Toth-Just for Kino Alfa, Kovcs and Pataki for Filmpartners, and Coulon for Vrai Vrai Films.