A Want in Her

Directed by Myrid Carten
Ireland
2024
81 mins

Synopsis

An artist and filmmaker turns her camera on her relationship with her alcoholic mother in this bruising and incredibly vulnerable documentary debut. In competition, IDFA 2025.

When her mother Nuala goes missing, Myrid Carten returns from London to her hometown in rural Ireland. There, the young artist and filmmaker discovers a familiar trail of reckless self-destruction. Myrid interweaves documentation of her confrontations with Nuala – once a social worker, but psychologically undone by her own mother’s death – and handycam footage of her childhood. The result is an engrossing mother-daughter portrait, rich with raw and painful detail. Myrid’s deep feelings of abandonment suffuse the atmospheric images, while her mother's renewed pleas for her to stay intensify the guilt and responsibility that keep her bound to the past. Through the fog of addiction and mental illness, however, an enduring love glimmers.

Limited seats are available for patrons requiring access for wheelchairs, low vision and hearing loop. Please contact our ticketing team directly on 1300 733 733 or tickets@sff.org.au to complete your booking.

This raw, emotionally devastating documentary is made watchable because it catches the beauty, love and even humour that so often make a fragile nest in the midst of misery.
Lee Marshall, Screen International

Tickets

Sun 8 June 2025, 3:30pm
Ritz Randwick - Cinema 5
WheelchairAssisted Listening
Wed 11 June 2025, 6:30pm
Dendy Newtown - Cinema 3
WheelchairAssisted Listening
  • Program Strand
  • Year
    2024
  • Classification
    Unclassified 18+
  • Country
    Ireland, UK, Netherlands
  • Language
    In English and Irish Gaelic with English subtitles
  • Director
    Myrid Carten
  • Producer
    Tadhg O’Sullivan, Roisín Geraghty, Kat Mansoor
  • Screenwriter
    Myrid Carten
  • Cinematographer
    Donna Wade, Seán Mullan, Myrid Carten
  • Editor
    Karen Harley
  • Genre
  • Premiere
    Australian Premiere
  • Company Credits
    World Sales: Syndicado Film Sales
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