Who Will Call Me Mother?

Description

When ABIGAIL hammers on MARIA’S door, she wants answers. Why has her son Jude abandoned her, to follow after MARIA’S son, JOSH? All Abi has ever wanted is for Jude to have the financial stability she never had as a single, teenage mum. And she thought she’d made it: grown-up, with a good job in accountancy, Jude was doing fine. Until Josh. Maria disarms Abi. Over a cup of tea, she explains that Josh’s nomadic lifestyle - helping people who need it, exposing the hypocrisy of those who should be helping them - looks great on social media, but it’s hard. Few people stick around long. Abi knows how stubborn Jude is though. Will she be able to persuade him to come home before he loses his job? Or will he give up everything she\'s worked for to be part of #TeamJosh? Maria invites Abi to dinner with Josh and his friends, including EVAN. Abi likes Josh, but she still begs Jude to come home. He won’t. He’ll only promise that if things go wrong, he’ll make sure they don’t lose everything. Abi catches Maria crying in the kitchen. They bond over their shared pride and fears for their sons. It’s the start of a great friendship. Time passes quickly as Abi and Maria bond. Dog-walking, coffees, pizza nights - it’s the first time Abi has had anyone other than Jude. The mothers follow Josh’s progress via messages, social media and – eventually – the press. But it gets worrying: the government aren’t happy with Josh; online trolls begin to threaten. When #TeamJosh arrive back in town, Abi and Maria are amazed to see so many fans of Josh, screaming and taking selfies. Abi is relieved. With popular opinion vastly in Josh’s favour, nobody could do anything to their sons now. Could they? That night, Evan bursts into Maria’s house. Josh has been arrested based on Jude’s evidence that Josh was planning civil unrest. Maria rushes to the police station, but Evan – who has promised Josh he’ll look after Maria – won’t let Abi come.Abi spends the night alone, repeatedly failing to get hold of Jude. By dawn, the news has broken: Josh has died in police custody. Abi runs away, back to her own home. Jude has been there all along. But he is dead too. On his phone she finds the deepfakes he created as evidence against Josh. And she sees the blood money he has left her: enough to make sure she doesn’t lose everything. Only, she already has. Abi tries to see Maria. She waits outside her house, but is repeatedly turned away by a furious Evan. Eventually though, Maria spots her and comes rushing out. Maria berates Evan for knowing Josh so long and yet showing no compassion. She and Abi cling to each other in the busy road. The world stops around them as they grieve together for their sons.

Biblical Connection

The initial spark of the idea came from the words Jesus speaks from the cross in John 19:26-27 - where he tells his friend John and his mother Mary that they must be family to each other now, as Mary is losing her eldest son. It really moved me that his concern was for his mother even in that moment of agony. But I\'m aware that two men died that day. Did Judas have a mother grieving him? And did he have a friend to look after her? I am always interested in the stories of the women behind the men. I find Judas himself fascinating and tragic - he knew who Jesus really was, and yet he still betrayed him. His immediate suicide suggests to me that he didn\'t think that anything very serious would happen to Jesus, and was devastated to have got it wrong. My film is set in the modern day, with Jesus becoming Josh - someone who speaks truth to power, and divides people because of it. The later events roughly follow the story of Holy Week, but the story is centred around the mothers left behind, rather than the identity of Josh.