Athena is a young professional living in London who is paying a visit to her single immigrant mother, Cora. During the visit, Athena becomes concerned with what she perceives as signs of Cora's declining mental health. Cora leaves the phone off the hook; she talks about hearing things; she's facing eviction, a development that she hasn't told Athena about. The conversation escalates into a confrontation between mother and daughter. But as it unfolds, Athena discovers that Cora's erratic behavior and statements might not be a mental illness but the manifestation of an inherited magical gift. Directed by Riffy Ahmed and written by Vanessa Rose, this warmly textured, intimate short drama explores familial bonds and how both strength and trauma are transmitted between generations. Its rich dialogue and strong performances bring to life the complexities of a parent-child relationship as it shifts due to power struggles and cultural misunderstandings, before settling into new configurations. But its evocation of magic adds a fresh dimension to its exploration of its themes, making for a unique metaphor for the legacies of beauty and love passed down from one generation to the next.
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The writing deftly establishes the characters and dramatic situation quickly and efficiently, as Athena visits her mother in her small, cramped apartment in a council flat. We see signs of disorder, and witness Cora's strange, paranoid behavior, which fuels Athena's growing alarm. The storytelling intimately knits together two mysteries, one for each character. For Athena, it's how she will react to her mother's seeming decline, and for Cora, it's whether or not she truly is a magical being. The question of magic hangs over the film, and visually, it beautifully balances both the off-kilter and the uncanny, employing a rich, burnished color palette and intimate camerawork and images. The musical score, with its offbeat jazz-like rhythms and instrumentation, punctuates moments of suspense in the film and adds a mischievous, ethereal dimension. Coupled with detail shots, it imbues a sense that something unseen is at work in Cora's home, but what that is remains ambiguous, thanks to the skillful and committed performance of actor Jo Martin, who plays both Cora's utter belief in who she is and her unabiding love for Athena. As Athena, actor Amarah-Jae St. Aubyn's precise, emotionally grounded performance is the perfect audience proxy, as well as the film's anchoring emotional journey as she grapples with the question of her mother's state of mind. When THE CALL reveals its mysteries, it unfurls into its heartfelt, unabashedly powerful conclusion as Athena beholds her mother's power for all it is. Up to the end, she doesn't quite believe it until she sees it with her own eyes -- her mother's final gift to her daughter and the amazing legacy of her heritage and ancestry.
