Mother Land: Alexandre Aja explains the end of his film with Halle Berry [SPOILERS]

WARNING: This article contains spoilers for the ending of “Mother Land”, it is intended for viewers who have already seen the film.

Mother Land, the tenth feature film by French filmmaker Alexandre Aja, has been in theaters since Wednesday September 25. Since the end of the world, June has protected her sons Samuel and Nolan, confining them to an isolated house. They hunt and look for something to survive in the neighboring forest, constantly connected to their house by a rope that their mother asks them to “never let go.” » Because, if we are to believe June, the old cabin is the only place where the family is safe from the “Evil” that reigns on Earth. But one day, the rope is broken, and they have no choice but to engage in a terrifying struggle for their own survival…

Halle Berry plays the mother while young Percy Daggs IV and Anthony B. Jenkins play her sons Nolan and Samuel.

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

“When I arrived on the film, I had a very clear reading of what the story was about. But I realized that, ultimately, other people had a very different reading. At first, it seemed to me like was a little unsettling However, I said to myself: maybe this is an opportunity to confront different points of view, like in certain stories where there is a supernatural explanation and a realistic explanation.

It reminds me of movies like The Shining Or Onibabawhere several interpretations are possible. This is also the case in certain classic horror tales, such as “Hansel and Gretel” or “Tom Thumb”, where different explanations can coexist. I found it interesting to maintain this ambiguity. However, my vision has never changed. Normally, I don’t like to share it, because I prefer to leave everyone free to their own interpretation.”

The rope metaphor

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

In the final scene, Nolan manages to free himself from his mother’s control by cutting the rope and tries to make June understand that it’s all in his imagination, while Samuel seems convinced that a demon is on the prowl. The events at the end – the little girl who climbs the tree and the hand which appears on Samuel’s shoulder on the Polaroid – make the spectators think, then in full doubt, that evil really exists. Yet the outside world seems to be fine… So what is it really?

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For Alexandre Aja, Mother Land “tells the story of a mother and her two children: one questions what she says, while the other believes everything she says. It’s a story of beliefs, of madness , and generational traumas transmitted from generation to generation, at the end of the film, one of the children manages to accept the dark side of his mother, to cut ties and free himself, while the other will remain behind. never a prisoner of the trauma transmitted by the mother The photo that we see at the end, where evil places its hand on Samuel’s shoulder, symbolizes for me the fact that Samuel will never recover, that he will never recover. will always be contaminated by this evil, while Nolan will be free.”

It’s a story of generational trauma passed down from generation to generation.

The hand in the photo is therefore 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 touched me in the script. I really asked myself: by seeking to protect, are we not transmitting fears that do not belong to us? That’s a real question. Loving can also be dangerous. On the other hand, when we are children, we may wonder: can our mother lie to us? Can she want negative things for us? It’s all very complex, but that’s what touched me the most. It was instinctive for me.”

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Motherland therefore offers a reflection on parenthood and what we leave as a legacy to our children. Parental fears, anxieties and trauma can have lasting effects on some, while others are able to overcome them. And it is this deep reflection which interested Alexandre Aja at the first reading of the script.

The director adds: “JI have the impression that horror cinema has a dimension which, sometimes, can be richer. Because, beyond entertainment, it almost becomes a psychological tool to confront our dark side, to be able, precisely, as in the darkest fairy tales, to confront the monsters that exist in a certain way. or another.

That’s what interests me, is when, all of a sudden, a genre film, by pushing human characters to their extreme, will explore all the complexity, will allow us to exorcise ourselves from some of our terrors.”