The Eternal Daughter - AFI Fest
A mother-daughter relationship, is framed as a ghost story in Joanna Hogg’s gothic drama.
The whistling wind, coupled with the nighttime mist, creates a spooky ambiance as a car with two passengers arrives at the secluded Moel Famau hotel. The fog moves through the open spaces of hedges and gargoyles at the manor representing the unspoken words in a relationship between a mother and daughter.
The Eternal Daughter is the third installment of the Souvenir series created by Joanna Hogg. Audiences previously met Julie Hart in the 80s, and reunite with her and Rosalind, her mother, in the present. What starts as a memorable birthday trip becomes haunting as the celebration goes on.
Julie and Rosalind are staying at an ancestral home once owned by aunt Jocelyn now turned hotel. A young Rosalind spent time there during the war. Although; a place full of sentimentality for Rosalind, Julie’s intentions of choosing it for a birthday expedition is for her gain. Each meal between the two usually starts with Julie hitting record on her iPhone and hiding it while her mother recounts the past. Julie has brought her mother back to their family movie to write a screenplay about her mother’s experiences. As her mother shares memories of sadness, Julie begins to question her ethics of exploiting family trauma and trespassing into these rooms that contain stories of their own.
The Eternal Daughter lacks conflict but draws audiences in as Julie lucidly wanders through her creative and personal issues. As she interacts more with her mother, she unravels into adolescence while pondering how she knows nothing about the woman who raised her. Rosalind always appears as she is hiding something through her subtle facial expressions when Julie begins to dig into the past. A woman of her time isn’t as likely to want to share these memories as someone Julie’s age might.
Tilda Swinton playing both characters is not a gimmick; it reflects how women see themselves in their mothers. Swinton becomes each woman and creates two distinct characters. Although she sees herself in her mother, Rosalind becomes an enigma. Julie starts to become obsessed with the differences between them and even more frustrated that her effort to capture her mother’s memories for her screenplay sends her into a mess. When Julie begins to see herself from her mother's perspective, she discovers her sadness that Julie is childless, making her: the eternal daughter.