The Best Mother in the World (A melhor mãe do mundo) | 2025 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review

Life is Beautiful: Muylaert Takes Aim at Domestic Abuse in Heartfelt Drama

In A melhor mãe do mundo (The Best Mother in the World), the latest narrative feature from Brazilian filmmaker Anna Muylaert, a woman makes the daring choice to escape a figurative house on fire before it’s too late. Muylaert has long been interested in exploring Brazil’s class issues through the microcosm of intriguing familial scenarios, specifically in her excellent offerings such as The Second Mother (2015) and Don’t Call Me Son (2016). She returns to the trials of the hearth in what plays like her most straightforward offering to date about a working class mother who makes the daring choice to flee an abusive partner after one of countless episodes of physical violence. Its subject matter is inherently best approached with less fussy narrative accoutrements, which arguably makes Muylaert’s latest feel a bit elemental and straightforward in comparison to her previous filmography. But the film gives lead Shirley Cruz the chance to shine as a desperate woman resolved to save herself and her children from an impossible situation.

Gal (Cruz) works as a garbage collector in São Paulo. She’s also been in a long-time relationship with Leandro (Seu Jorge), who has a tendency to beat her when he’s drunk. Bruised and swollen, she attempts to file a complaint following his last abusive episode, brought about by her refusal to sleep with him. After finishing a shift of work, Gal attempts to pick the children up at school with her work cart in tow, dismayed to find Leandro has already retrieved them. Quietly returning home, she has Rihanna (Rihanna Barbosa) and Benin (Benin Ayo) gather some essentials while Leandro showers and the three of them take off on what she promises is a grand adventure. Hiding the children in her cart, she sets her sights on her cousin’s home, hoping to find an opportunity to start over again.

With minor roles in Stephen Daldry’s Brazil-set Trash (2014) and Karim Ainouz’s The Invisible Life of Eurídice Gusmão (2019), Cruz gets to be front and center here, having also been a part of Muylaert’s ensemble comedy The Business Women’s Club (2024). We experience Gal in the last stages of denial as the film opens, filing a complaint against the abusive Leandro but still making excuses for his behavior. A mad dash to scoop up her children and flee seems almost to have been a whim, but it’s clear she’s imagined what such a move might look like, cutting a swath across São Paulo on a wing and a prayer. Attempting to make it seem like a fun excursion to her children, there’s an odd tone which sets in, like Life is Beautiful (1998) meets any number of domestic abuse thrillers, such as Sleeping with Enemy (1991) or Enough (2022). As Gal, Cruz is somewhat in a daze initially, but some chance encounters with other folks in need prove to be beneficial.

After a brief reprieve, familial betrayal announces itself when Leandro shows up at the family barbecue bearing flowers and gifts, swearing to change his ways. A marriage proposal followed by a violent sexual encounter suggests Gal will be forced back into a toxic rhythm, which is underlined by her cousin’s reticence about marriage being hard and advising there are just some things one learns to deal with. Perhaps surprisingly, The Best Mother in the World suggests the most healthy, supportive family just might be a chosen one, especially if the feedback we’re receiving normalizes abuse for the sake of convenience. As bell hooks wrote, “In actuality, when we love rightly we know that the healthy, loving response to cruelty and abuse is putting ourselves out of one’s way.” And, as such, Gal does indeed deserve her own children’s anointment as best mother in the world.

Reviewed on February 15th at the 2025 Berlin International Film Festival (75th edition) – Berlinale Special. 105 mins.

★★½/☆☆☆☆☆