The Toxic Matriarchy, or a Tale of three Marys.
Maritxu lives with her husband Joxemari and her 88-year-old mother Mari. Maritxu feels morally obliged to look after her mother since she is now demented. She no longer speaks, apart from shouting Maritxu's name when she needs help. In the opening scenes we see Maritxu helping her mother onto the toilet, but as soon as she turns her back Mari walks out of the toilet and pees on the landing.
Joxemari begs his wife to put Mari in an old people's home, but she refuses. The only way he can get rid of her is to take his wife on holiday and let his daughter Miren and son-in-law Kintxo bring her into a home while they are away. This doesn't last long, because Mari runs away and uses a stolen credit card to stay in a luxury hotel. Miren and Kintxo take Mari into their home, and Kintxo begins to suspect that Mari isn't demented at all, she's just pretending to be ill to make everyone around her suffer. But things go further than even he suspects. She's not just an old woman playing silly pranks, she is pure evil.
The film starts off slowly, and it seems like a comedy. This makes it all the more shocking when we see the depravities to which Mari can sink. First we laugh, and then we gasp as the horrors unfold. This is a very twisted film from the imagination of writer/director Telmo Esnal. Twisted but fascinating. This is his first full length film, and I hope there will be many more.
As far as I know, the film has not been released in English, even though today's showing had English subtitles. The only DVD I could locate is a Spanish release with Spanish subtitles. That's all.
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