It's Mothering Sunday this weekend, a day to celebrate all the mums, mother figures, women and carers in our lives. Whilst lots of us will be celebrating, it’s a more complicated day for some. If you’re looking for a way to quietly remember an important woman in your life, why not come along to Showroom Cinema and see The Metamorphosis of Birds?  

This gorgeous debut feature by Portuguese visual artist Catarina Vasconcelos is a thoughtful and gentle essay on love, longing and loss, made up of beautifully composed images and poetic voiceover. Catarina never knew her grandmother, Beatriz, who died before she was born. The first half of the film unfolds as a fictionalised account of Beatriz’s life, based solely on a photograph found in Catarina’s childhood home. As well as tracing a half-imagined history of her family, the second half of this tremendously moving film sees Vasconcelos and her father bonding over the loss of their respective mothers. Together they pay tribute to the endless generations of mothers who have lived and loved, and all the children left behind to mourn them. Bold, inventive and difficult to categorize as a hybrid of memoir, metafiction, family history and magical realism, The Metamorphosis of Birds is a shimmering dreamscape of reminiscence, grief, and identity.  

Also screening at Showroom Cinema this weekend is Blerta Basholli’s feature debut, Hive, which tells the moving story of one mother’s persistence and determination to provide for her family after her husband’s disappearance in war-torn 1990s Kosovo. Despite her pervasive grief and disapproving patriarchal community, she starts a business selling ajvar, a traditional Balkan red pepper spread, and empowers her fellow women to join her venture.  

Based on the true story of Fahrije Hoti, this Albanian-language drama is Kosovo’s entry for this year’s international feature Oscar. Dealing with the sting of grief – like Catarina and her father in The Metamorphosis of Birds - Fahrije tends to the hive in the garden that was set up by her husband as a way of connecting with his memory. But each sting is a reminder of the pain she is trying to exorcise, so she focuses on building her own small business producing ajvar. In the current global and political climate, Hive is a powerful and pertinent film that celebrates the strength, camaraderie and fighting spirit of women empowering women in difficult circumstances.  

Join us at Showroom Cinema this Mother’s Day weekend to celebrate strong and inspirational women. You can book tickets and get show times for The Metamorphosis of Birds and Hive on our website.

This article first featured in the Sheffield Telegraph on Thursday 24 March 2022.