Late For My Mother's Funeral (2013)

• 47%
• 2013
• Documentary
• Penny Allen

Filmed in three countries over the course of three years, 'Late for My Mother's Funeral' is about a French-Algerian-Moroccan family adrift after the death of their jewel-smuggler mother, Zineb. Abdeljalil, who lives in Paris, hasn't been back to Algeria for twelve years and is late for his mother's funeral. Anguished, he gets his sisters to don their mother's dress, and to re-create moments in Zineb's life. These scenes reveal, sometimes surprisingly, what each of them feels about their mother. Abdeljalil finally puts on Zineb's dress himself in one of many scenes that reveal the conflicted psychology plaguing the offspring of a mythical mother figure. Torn between France, Algeria, and Morocco, their only real country is Zineb, who is now gone.