"Madar tamame rooz doa mikhanad", which means "Mother prays all day long" is a German live action short film from 2022 that is mostly in the German language, but also includes segments in English and Farsi it is I think. The former is spoken between the two protagonists and the latter between one character and her mother. The film runs for minimally over 24 minutes including credits and scored some awards attention in Germany and Switzerland, but not too much. Hoda Taheri plays the immigrant here and she is also the writer and director. For her it is probably so far the most known for and same is true for Magdalena Jacob, who co-wrote the script with Taheri here and plays the other female protagonist. She has worked in different fields of film production already. I think the problems with this film already start with the title. Obviously, by picking those five words that nobody in Germany understands they wanted everybody to know right away that this movie is about the subject of immigration and in favor of such, which pretty much means in Germany that if you make a film like that, it is not important if it is good at all, but they will always throw money your way and most of the time awards too. Apart from that, the meaning of the title is also nothing that summarizes the film whatsoever, so a poor choice from every perspective. Yes, we do see the Iranian woman's mother in the first half via webcam footage, but she does not pray once and neither does the mother of the German central character. The only thing memorable there with the Iranian was that apparently it was really common in the country to tell your pin code to every stranger. With the German mother, it was maybe my favorite scene and it felt kinda realistic what the mother said there, how she talked about her time as a teacher and also how she des not even think about abortion being an option for her daughter. Had the rest of the film been on the same level as this scene, I might have given a slightly better rating. But it is not.
It just tries to be as showy in terms of nudity and getting the right political messages across while never really making any sense or justifying the nudity. We have the two women naked in bed next to each other at the very start. Later on, we have the two have sex and one uses a glass bottle with a condom to pleasure the other before the other proceeds to perform cunnilingus on the first one. I am not sure if the talk about that bottle moment before is worse or the scene itself. Both was abysmal and all for the sake of it. The talk between the two women earlier was better, but every time the subject became more dramatic, it was not working. They just stuffed in al the content in this scene that you would think the two women definitely know about each other given they are getting married soon. Like what month one character had her abortion. What the experience was like when the abortion happened etc. How convenient also that one character had an abortion in the past already when the other is considering it. Does not feel written at all. But it was also the small moments when the film struggled. Like we see one character throw up into the toilet and the other is in the shower nearby and hears it, but what she hears and what we hear is only a coughing sound, so you will certainly wonder why the woman in the shower showed such a worried reaction when what she heard was literally nothing.
The open ending that still implies that an abortion seems likely let me think that Taheri was maybe considering turning this film into a full-feature film at some point. I hope it is not gonna happen. I mean it may sound harsh, but I prefer to call it honest and the way this piece was written here, I don't see any talent at all and all the film delivers through and also why it was not completely overlooked is the political subjects it touches. When we hear the woman talk about giving the same answers in a certain scenario, we are supposed to find it funny how they lie and we should not be worrying about them breaking the law, but rather think that it is sad that they even do have to lie in order to be allowed to stay together. Or take the fact that the German protagonist is pregnant from a man right now in the face of her romance with this Iranian female. Or take the last camera shot that takes us first close and then into the vagina of one character when they are talking about the ways in which a fetus can or cannot hear what is going on in the outer world. The indirect explanation that she should go through with the abortion is then supported by the words that it does not understand the meaning of those words anyway, even if it hears them. Or early on you also have one woman say that her abortion was not painful at all despite the questionable circumstances under which it took place. So you can say it is a film clearly in favor of abortion. In general, the movie brings all the political positions that are relentless pursued by politics in Germany and also by the media. This is why it is known. It is not a good film by any means and I genuinely hope that if Taheri, who is admittedly pretty stunning, continues making films which she very well could given her young age at this point, she will find major improvement one way or the other over the years. Or get rid of Jacob if she was a major contributing factor why this was such an awful film overall. I highly recommend skipping the watch.
It just tries to be as showy in terms of nudity and getting the right political messages across while never really making any sense or justifying the nudity. We have the two women naked in bed next to each other at the very start. Later on, we have the two have sex and one uses a glass bottle with a condom to pleasure the other before the other proceeds to perform cunnilingus on the first one. I am not sure if the talk about that bottle moment before is worse or the scene itself. Both was abysmal and all for the sake of it. The talk between the two women earlier was better, but every time the subject became more dramatic, it was not working. They just stuffed in al the content in this scene that you would think the two women definitely know about each other given they are getting married soon. Like what month one character had her abortion. What the experience was like when the abortion happened etc. How convenient also that one character had an abortion in the past already when the other is considering it. Does not feel written at all. But it was also the small moments when the film struggled. Like we see one character throw up into the toilet and the other is in the shower nearby and hears it, but what she hears and what we hear is only a coughing sound, so you will certainly wonder why the woman in the shower showed such a worried reaction when what she heard was literally nothing.
The open ending that still implies that an abortion seems likely let me think that Taheri was maybe considering turning this film into a full-feature film at some point. I hope it is not gonna happen. I mean it may sound harsh, but I prefer to call it honest and the way this piece was written here, I don't see any talent at all and all the film delivers through and also why it was not completely overlooked is the political subjects it touches. When we hear the woman talk about giving the same answers in a certain scenario, we are supposed to find it funny how they lie and we should not be worrying about them breaking the law, but rather think that it is sad that they even do have to lie in order to be allowed to stay together. Or take the fact that the German protagonist is pregnant from a man right now in the face of her romance with this Iranian female. Or take the last camera shot that takes us first close and then into the vagina of one character when they are talking about the ways in which a fetus can or cannot hear what is going on in the outer world. The indirect explanation that she should go through with the abortion is then supported by the words that it does not understand the meaning of those words anyway, even if it hears them. Or early on you also have one woman say that her abortion was not painful at all despite the questionable circumstances under which it took place. So you can say it is a film clearly in favor of abortion. In general, the movie brings all the political positions that are relentless pursued by politics in Germany and also by the media. This is why it is known. It is not a good film by any means and I genuinely hope that if Taheri, who is admittedly pretty stunning, continues making films which she very well could given her young age at this point, she will find major improvement one way or the other over the years. Or get rid of Jacob if she was a major contributing factor why this was such an awful film overall. I highly recommend skipping the watch.