Äidin toive

An astronaut sends her young son a video message from outer space. In Mexico, a stripper dances night after night to keep a roof over her child’s head. In Canada, a woman becomes a mother for the first time after enduring seven miscarriages. Finnish filmmaker Joonas Berghäll travelled to South African settlements, Nepalese terraced fields and Russia’s metropolis Moscow to investigate an unshakable and almost magical connection: the bond between mother and child. Mother's Wish portrays ten women from the most varied of cultural and social backgrounds who all tell of the beauty and difficulty of being a mother. These are not only stories of love and pride, but also of disappointed hopes and the most precarious of life circumstances. Above all else, the protagonists tell of their determination to fight for a better future, regardless of their current living conditions. (Zurich Film Festival)