Mothers (Macedonian: Мајки / Majki) is a 2010 film by Milcho Manchevski. An international co-production, the film mingles fiction with documentary.
Premise
Three stories, all true, one real.[1] Employing an innovative structure, the three stories in Mothers highlight the delicate relationship of truth and fiction, of drama and documentary. What is the nature of truth? The film eschews neat narrative devices and pushes to confront their own definitions of filmic reality.
The three stories[2] focus on three aspects of life in contemporary North Macedonia (a city, a small town and a deserted village). Mothers, whose motto is “The Truth Hurts” explores the nature of truth – all three stories (two fiction and one documentary) are based on real events, but only one - the most incredible - is told as documentary. This story examines the unsolved mystery of the Kichevo serial killer who murdered several retired cleaning women. A crime reporter who covered the stories was arrested, and two days later he was found dead with his head in a bucket of water. A suicide note was found in his cell.
Natasha Senjanovic of The Hollywood Reporter said "Manchevski mixes fiction with documentary in a film that hits home on an emotional rather than intellectual level".[6]
Diego Pierini writing in LoudVision said Mothers is a very strange film, sometimes sophisticated, poignant and often elliptical.[...] One of the most interesting and original filmmakers of recent years [...] One of those authors who are not afraid to face the genres and to push the boundaries.[7]
