I’m a woman who has never wanted children. For years, the person who had the hardest time accepting that was my mother. Since two of my closest friends also chose a child-free life, I came up with a small experiment: We swapped moms. Each of us sat down for an open conversation not with our own mother but with another’s.
In a world where the right of women to make decisions about their bodies and life choices is still questioned, where child-free women are often seen as broken or selfish, I made this film to put that experience onscreen. Filmed in Israel in 2023, “M/other” captures a deeply personal and ongoing conversation. Maybe it will help us all be better understood.
Iris Zaki is a Tel Aviv-based filmmaker. Her previous Op-Docs include “Natural Born Settlers” and “Shampoo Summit.”
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