Mother's Elling

Mother's Elling

2003 · 78 min · NO · 5.9 (25 votes)
Dir. Eva Isaksen · Starring Per Christian Ellefsen, Grete Nordrå, Helge Reiss, Christin Borge, Per Schaanning, Lena Meieran · Music Lars Lillo-Stenberg · Elling Collection
ComedyDrama

Elling has lived with his mother all his life. Mom is the practical one, while Elling ponders the more theoretical aspects of life. He spends his time in their apartment reading books and looking at the neighbours through the living room window. Elling doesn't seem to need to be around others like most people. That's why Elling is less than enthusiastic when his mother suddenly decides to take her son on a beach vacation to Spain. Reluctantly, Elling agrees. After all, a lady at her age needs a good man by her side. But what Elling refuses to realize is that Mom is not only old, but also sick. Very sick. On her last vacation she tries to get Elling to see that life is bigger than their living room.

VIBE

A tender, quiet film about a sheltered man forced to confront the world and his own life during a final family trip. It's a gentle, melancholic journey of reluctant growth and bittersweet goodbyes, wrapped in a European sensibility.

melancholicwistfulbittersweetquirkyslow-burnEuropean arthousecharacter-driven dramagentle comedymother-son relationshipcoming-of-agefacing mortalityfinding independence
hotelbased on novel or bookmallorca islandspainvacationmama's boypretty womanwoman director
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