Mother Earth: Alexander Aja explains the ending of his film with Halle Berry [SPOILERS]

Warning: This article contains spoilers for the ending of Mother Earth and is intended for viewers who have already seen the film.

French director Alexandre Aya’s tenth feature film “Mother Earth” opens in theaters on Wednesday, September 25. From the end of the world, June protected her sons Samuel and Nolan by confining them to an isolated house. They hunt and look for something to save in the neighboring forest, which is permanently connected to their house by a rope, which their mother asks them to “never let go”. Because if June is to be believed, the old cabin is the only place where the family is safe from the “evil” reigning on earth. But one day, the rope breaks and they have no choice but to engage in a terrifying battle for their own survival…

Halle Berry plays the mother, while young Percy Daggs IV and Anthony B. Jenkins is played by his sons Nolan and Samuel.

Have you seen a feature film and didn’t understand everything at the end? While meeting Alexander Aja to promote his film, we asked him to explain the ending. He explained to us that he realized quite quickly that the end of Mother Earth could be interpreted in many different ways.

“When I went to the film, I was very clearly asking what the story was about. But I realized that, in the end, other people had a very different question. At first, it seemed a little disturbing, but I said to myself: maybe this is an opportunity, Contrast different points of view, like in some stories where there is a supernatural explanation and a realistic explanation.

It reminds me of such movies shines or Onibabawhere several interpretations are possible. This also happens in some classic horror stories like “Hansel and Gretel” or “Tom Tam”, where different explanations can coexist. It was interesting to me to maintain that ambiguity. However, my vision never changed. I usually don’t like to share it because I prefer to leave it to everyone’s own interpretation.”

rope metaphor

Throughout the film, June and her sons are tied to the house by a rope. According to June, being tied to the house protects them from the evil force that has engulfed the world. It quickly becomes clear that the rope is a metaphor for the umbilical cord and symbolizes the bond with the mother that keeps them under her control.

In the final scene, Nolan manages to free himself from his mother’s control by cutting a rope and tries to convince June that it’s all in her imagination, while Samuel seems convinced that a demon is at hand. The final events—a little girl climbing a tree and a hand appearing on Samuel’s shoulder on a Polaroid—lead the viewer to believe that evil really exists. Although the outside world seems to be fine… so what is it really?

Alexander for Aja, Mother Earth “tells the story of a mother and her two children: one questions what she says, and the other believes everything she says. It’s a story of faith, madness and generational trauma, passed down from generation to generation, at the end of the film. One of the children manages to Embracing the dark side, severing ties and freeing oneself, and the other never being held captive by the trauma passed down by his mother puts a hand on Samuel’s shoulder, which for me represents the fact that Samuel will never recover, that he will always be tainted by this evil, while Nolan will be free.

This is a story of generational trauma passed down from generation to generation.

Therefore, the hand in the photo is a metaphor for the trauma that will always live in Samuel’s mind.

A film about what we pass on to our children

The filmmaker adds “CThis is the aspect that particularly bothered me about the script. I really asked myself: in seeking protection, are we not passing on fears that do not belong to us? This is a real question. Love can also be dangerous. On the other hand, in childhood, we may wonder: Can our mother deceive us? Can he wish negative things for us? It’s all very complicated, but that’s what bothered me the most. It was instinctive for me.”

homeland It therefore offers a reflection on parenthood and the legacy we leave to our children. Parental fears, anxieties and trauma can have a lasting effect on some, while others can overcome them. And it is this deep reflection that interests him Alexander Aja During the first reading of the script.

The director adds: “JI get the impression that horror cinema has a dimension that can sometimes be richer. Because beyond the fun, it becomes almost a psychological tool to confront our dark side, so that we can, as in the darkest fairy tales, confront the monsters in some way.

That’s what interests me when, suddenly, a genre film explores the complexity of taking human characters to extremes, allowing us to banish some of our fears.