22 Jan 2025
Director: Hilmar Oddsson
Iceland, Estonia
2022
112 min
Hilmar Oddsson’s darkly comedic road movie is a bewitching 1980-set odyssey of self-discovery and acceptance across the beautifully photographed landscapes of Iceland. Middle-aged and disappointed, Jón spends his days knitting and listening to the radio with his domineering elderly mother on their rural Icelandic farmstead. With his life overtaken by looking after his home and his mother’s needs, Jón’s isolated world is upended when she suddenly passes away. Having left him a series of instructions to follow upon her death, Jón sets out on a journey across Iceland to honour his mother’s final wishes including being buried in Eyrarbakki, her home village. Strapping her into his Mk II Ford Cortina, and with the beloved family dog Brezhnev in tow, Jón sets off on his strange journey. With his late mum still relentlessly nagging him from the back seat, he meets a variety of peculiar and charming strangers and encounters some ghosts from his past as well. Beautifully filmed in crisp black and white, Driving Mum is a heartwarming film with a fantastic central performance from Gunnarsson.
Tallin Black Nights Film Festival – Winner Grand Prix for the Best Film