There have been plenty of harrowing birth scenes in films over the years, but none quite like the one in “Mutter: Diary of a Mother,” which finds Gül (Hazar Ergüçlü) in the backseat of a truck that her partner Cem (Erdeniz Kurucan) is driving like a madman, turning corners with an abandon that would be scary even on regular roads yet seems particularly dangerous on the sides of mountains in their native Turkey. Remarkably, the delivery of the baby ends up being a little less frightening than what comes out, at least to Cem, who sees something beyond all the blood that disturbs him deeply and you can’t entirely tell when running out of the vehicle whether he’s desperate to find help or unlikely to be ever seen again when he’s so spooked.
It turns out to be the latter in Alphan Eseli’s unsettling horror film in which Gül appears to have given birth to a monster, but in choosing to take care of the abnormal creature as if it was no different than any other human child, it reveals that there are others around she should be far more afraid of. Anchored by a thoroughly unfazed turn from Ergüçlü, the film follows the newly single mother as she protects her newborn at all costs while fending off the real mess that Cern left behind when the older man he leased the truck from comes calling with an unpaid debt and she has half a mind to join a younger man with plans to move to the city once he scrapes up enough cash, though that doesn’t look like it’s soon enough to get her out of immediate danger. Her family already questions her when she moved out to a remote area and she seems to be getting as wild as the animals known to circle around those parts, making it seem like it’s her against the world, though with her maternal instincts kicking in, it can appear as if she’s on equal footing.
As unexpected as much of “Mutter” is, it may be the end credit in which Eseli pays tribute to his own late mother to cap off such a gruesome film that may be most surprising, yet there might be no better expression for how indebted he could feel towards the woman that raised him than the fiercely protective Gül, who finds resourcefulness she never knew she had in her until it’s called on by the extreme circumstances she faces. Although the director and star of the film are both better known for dramas (Ergüçlü could last be seen as a crucial part of Alireza Khatami’s haunting drama “The Things You Kill”), they make the horrific turns “Mutter” takes particularly disturbing when rooted in reality and with the film ready to leave audiences shaken at Tribeca with its premiere this week in New York, the two shared the challenges of getting out of their wheelhouse to make the creature feature, how they pulled off the film’s outrageous opening sequence and delve into the subconscious so deeply.
Alphan, I was sorry to learn that this was inspired part by your mother’s passing. How did a story start to take shape?
Alphan Eseli: Yes, it was during the pandemic when my mom got sick and this is a time when I realized that she was not going to make it. I felt so helpless and also very useless because there was nothing I could do to prevent it. My mother was the most self-sufficient person I’ve ever met in my life. She never asked anything from from me, even after the passing of my of my father. And we were very close and she always [said] “My children first, then me.” She was the most unselfish person ever and now I felt, “This is the only time that I should step up and help her,” but I couldn’t do anything and I felt really depressed. It was a very dark time. But then out from that darkness, I realized, maybe I can not do anything, but the only thing I can do is imake a film out of all these things that I have going on around my mind. That’s how I started to write the film.
Hazar, what got you interested in this?
Hazar Ergüçlü: So many things were very appealing, but as an actor to play with nothing — just to pretend [I had a real baby in my hands] was the most challenging part for me because I was going to give birth and there was no baby. It’s a monster, not even a baby and I was going to hold it and there was nothing. This was the most challenging part to me. I was scared and I felt very ignorant because I’m not familiar to the genre, I was like “What am I going to do with this guy?”But because Alphan is such a movie guy and he’s a very good director, I just let myself [give in] to him and the feelings and I hope it worked.
Alphan Eseli: It must be very difficult for her to act with a dummy, especially in those extremely emotional scenes between the child and the mom. Way before the film, we did a lot of tests and experiments with how to achieve the most realistic depiction of the creature and for us, it’s such a technical thing, but I think it was more challenging for Hazar than for us.
Hazar Ergüçlü: It was lonely. When there’s nothing that you play together with, you’re on your own and you’re in your mind and in your inner world and your thoughts, so because there is nothing to look at and it can’t look back at you, I had to shape everything. I didn’t know if it’s the right thing to do with the baby because I’m not a mother. I was just trying to follow these instincts as a woman. I just tried to love the baby because that unconditional love was the main feeling coming out of me.
Alphan Eseli: And that’s directing. You cast such an incredible actress, you don’t have to worry. You need the right actress who can take what’s written in the script, and take it even beyond your imagination.
What was it like filming that opening birth scene in the car? It looked like it was wild.
Alphan Eseli: We shot the film exactly two years ago at this time, in very early June and we couldn’t shoot the opening scene in the summer because there was not a single drop of rain and it’s a rainy opening scene. So we finished everything else and then came back for a few couple days in November to shoot the opening scene in those dirt roads in the mud. Honestly, it was very, very dangerous. We didn’t have stunt money. But a friend of mine introduced me to this off-road champion rally driver, one of the best in Europe, a Turkish guy, and to do a scene like that in Hollywood, you have to adjust the brakes and basically build the car from scratch. But we had none of that, so we had this crazy guy driving insanely. Whatever you see is the actual speed. It was very dangerous, but he nailed it. And I remember Erdeniz who plays the husband [Cem], he came to the set and said, “I want to drive with him, so I can see how he’s driving and changing the gears” [since behind the wheel in the story]. I said, “Yeah, you’re welcome.” And then he drove one [take] and basically when he came out of the car, he was just pale white. It was that scary. I mean you could fall off the cliffs. That guy was driving insane.
Hazar, were you actually in the backseat for all of that?
Hazar Ergüçlü: I wasn’t in the car while the professional driver was driving. When we were shooting the scene, we were just going slowly and I was pretending. I was pretty comfortable. [laughs]
Alphan Eseli: But it cuts perfect. You’ve got the exterior shots where the car basically burst through those roads and then the interiors with the right angle with the right lenses and it cuts perfectly.
It really does. It also looks like you found a house that you could shoot 360 in to amplify the isolation that the mother is feeling. What was it like to find that location?
Alphan Eseli: We shot everything on real actual locations [since] that was the only way we could build the atmosphere and it was exactly like how it was written in the script. But the only thing we did build was the house. We were on a shoestring budget and we looked for houses in the highlands, but none of them was you know came close to [what we wanted]. When I was location scouting, I was in the car and it was exactly like in the opening scenes when she’s driving to the house and the first time we see it, it’s surrounded by those dense trees. The only thing that was missing was the house, so [I knew] the opening shot was there. We just have to build the house there and whatever it takes, we have to build it. There was no other way.
When both of you have been known for more traditional dramas, is it liberating to be able to do something a little more extreme with horror?
Alphan Eseli: Yeah, I absolutely love genre films, [particularly] genre films even if you take the genre aspects out of it there’s still a very solid story. Look at all the great horror films — “Rosemary’s Baby” or “Carrie,” [which] I think is one of the greatest coming-of-age stories…
Hazar Ergüçlü: It was very risky for me, but I tried [approaching] it the same. I didn’t want to create any difference. If Alphan asked me to put something in style, of course we’d work together and I would try things, but the atmosphere and the script were so strong and I trusted him to tell me what to do.
The sound of the creature is pretty unforgettable – it sounds like a mix of various types of mammals, including humans, but other creatures. What was that like to concoct?
Alphan Eseli: That was the biggest challenge. I worked with an incredible French sound guy, Herve Gruyader and it took a very long time to to get this sound of the creature right. It has to be eerie, creepy, but it also has to be communicative. There was a lot of trial and error and that was [our sound designer’s] main focus for months. Because we had almost no budget, he had no assistance, but under the given circumstances, he did an incredible job.
I haven’t been able to shake it myself since seeing it. What’s it like getting ready to share this with audiences?
Alphan Eseli: As I said, it’s been a very long journey, five years from the day I started writing it, so I think it’s uh it’s finally ready to meet with an audience and I hope they like it. I’m super excited.
Hazar Ergüçlü: Same here, I’m very nervous and I can’t wait to watch with the audience because I want to see the reactions. This was a huge risk for me, but I love this movie and it’s very special for me now.
“Mutter: The Diary of a Mother” will screen at Tribeca at the AMC 19th St East 6 on June 6th at 8:15 pm, June 7th at 9 pm and June 9th at 9 pm.