La Maternal

Synopsis

Rebellious and headstrong, 14-year-old Carla spends her days kicking around with her best friend Efrain, fending for herself, and wreaking havoc – anything to escape her combustive relationship with her mother. But when social services determine that the slight, still girlish Carla is five months pregnant, they send her to La Maternal, a home for young mothers. Taking counsel and support from the other teens at the center, Carla must quickly learn how to be a parent, even as she resists this new, inescapable role. With a singular skill for working with young actors, director Pilar Pilomero (Schoolgirls)’s sensitive if sobering social drama deploys an intimate, documentary-like style to explore the tenuous line between childhood and adulthood, daughter and mother.