Little Mother Lies

Directed by Amanda Deering Jones and written by Kitty Edwinson, Little Mother Lies is a tense family drama set over the course of a single evening. Over a borscht dinner, two estranged sisters unravel into a confrontation over addiction and their family’s past.

Dorie (Pascale Roger-McKeever) is a mother struggling to care for her son, Owen (Elliott Thomas West), who is battling withdrawal symptoms. None of his medications seems to help, and he is locked in a bedroom in Dorie’s childhood home. Living there is Dorie’s sister, Marinka (Emilie Talbot), who has made borscht for the pair, but only Dorie is able to eat. As they dine, old family tensions simmer. Marinka has her own opinions on how Owen should be treated, but Dorie, desperate to protect her son, refuses to listen to someone who has had a few drinks in her.

While the sisters try to share a quiet evening, Owen plots his escape. He discovers a key hidden among a set of nesting dolls, a small symbol of his desire for freedom. Meanwhile, Marinka drinks and reminisces about the past, stirring up family secrets that seem to have found their way into Owen despite Dorie’s attempts to shield him from her past as the descendant of exiled Russian aristocrats.

“Over a borscht dinner, two estranged sisters unravel into a confrontation over addiction and their family’s past.”

Edwinson based Little Mother Lies on a pivotal evening between two sisters—one determined to break loose from an archaic family culture and the other clinging to its warped values and alluring avoidance of reality. Through their opposing choices, Edwinson explores the painful inheritance of third-generation exiled Russian aristocrats and how deeply ingrained habits of denial shape the family’s fate, as seen in Marinka’s drinking, which keeps the illusions alive.

The film is intended to be a proof of concept for Edwinson and Jones’ potential feature film, Mother Lies. In the short, we are presented with three very strong characters with unique wants and needs. It’s easy to see how family and addiction come into play, particularly for Dorie, who has no one to turn to but family. The tone is set perfectly with its red and black color palette. In the film, the dark tones are intended to represent the sisters’ aristocratic past, but they also symbolize Owen’s struggle to overcome his withdrawal symptoms and Dorie’s past coming back to haunt her.

Little Mother Lies captures the desperation of a family with nowhere to turn but to one another. The short film lays a strong foundation and promises a deeper exploration of love, denial, and the ties that bind, even when they should be broken.