The Eternal Daughter

Filmmaker Julie (Tilda Swinton) and her mother Rosalind (Tilda Swinton) travel to their erstwhile family home in Wales that currently in use as a hotel. The remote country home where Rosalind spent her youth harbours old family secrets that keep Julie awake at night. She hopes to get to know her mother better, but is confronted by apparitions from the past. How close can a daughter get to her mother?

Impressive

Joanna Hogg’s take on the traditional ghost story, once again focuses on mother-daughter relations, as did the British director’s much-lauded The Souvenir (2019) and The Souvenir: Part II (2021), both of which featured Tilda Swinton and can also be seen at Eye. The Eternal Daughter is a wonderful film about a complicated, yet extremely strong bond between a mother and daughter, about how impossible it is to make someone else happy, no matter how hard you try. It is also a film about grieving, guilt and never being good enough as a daughter.

Swinton’s performance as a mother and daughter is impressive, with the former being the subject of the latter’s film. The Eternal Daughter (2022) had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival.

Pre-film

Before The Eternal Daughter, you will see the poetic A Portrait of Ga (1952, 5’), which Scottish experimental filmmaker Margaret Tait made about her mother. Tilda Swinton hand-picked a short film, either from her rich oeuvre or from Eye’s collection, to precede all feature films.

Joanna Hogg Retrospective

From 8 January through 4 February, Eye will highlight the oeuvre of British photographer, screenwriter, and filmmaker Joanna Hogg. During these four weeks, all of Joanna Hogg's films will be screened.

Hogg will visit Eye for two talks: on 27 January, a special evening dedicated to her working methods, inspirations, and collaborations will take place. Using excerpts from her films, ranging from her earliest (previously unseen) cinematic experiments to her most contemporary work, recurring themes in her work will be explored. Her first and last short films will also be screened.

On 28 January, a conversation between Tilda Swinton and Joanna Hogg will go into how their lives, particularly the relationship between mothers and daughters, influenced the films they made together, such as The Souvenir and The Eternal Daughter. On 28 January, Swinton and Hogg will introduce a screening of The Souvenir.