Of Womb

Evading the hard truth of their religious matriarch’s death, three sisters gestate dark ecstasies of faith and folk horror.

Blessed be Mother.

Three young women have been raised in innocence on a remote, dilapidated homestead, alone with their bedbound, intensely religious mother. Fuelled by a heady brew of existential terror, dogmatic belief and desire to dominate, The Eldest decides to hide Mother’s death from her siblings, telling them the Devil is lurking behind her closed bedroom door as sound and stench, ready to repay their curiosity with a terrible sickness. Among the paperbark trees, invented sacraments begin playfully but soon plunge the trio into a claustrophobic shared delirium, gasping towards a devastating collapse.

Inspired by their own religious upbringing and fascination with European arthouse witch tropes, debutant West Australian director Peter Firebrace shot Of Womb with a tiny, close-knit cast and crew in a heritage-listed South Fremantle house with its own morbid history. Belying its micro-budget, this visually stunning psychological fever dream thrums with the ritual gestures of Dogtooth (MIFF 2009) and The Witch (MIFF 2015) and evokes the landscape-horror tradition of Picnic at Hanging Rock (MIFF 2018). The film’s own gripping simplicity, however, announces an exciting new voice in Australian cinema – one poised to disturb, provoke and captivate.

Content: Melbourne International Film Festival