birth/rebirth. 2023. USA. Directed by Laura Moss. Screenplay by Moss, Brendan J. O’Brien. With Judy Reyes, Marin Ireland, Breeda Wool. DCP. Sneak preview courtesy Shudder and IFC Films. 98 min.
Laura Moss’s standout directorial debut reimagines Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein with such a contemporary understanding that it becomes something exciting, terrifying, and singularly new. Rose (Marin Ireland) is a pathologist who prefers working with corpses over social interaction. She also has an obsession: the reanimation of the dead. Celie (Judy Reyes) is a maternity nurse who has built her life around her bouncy, chatterbox six-year-old daughter, Lila (A. J. Lister). When Lila suddenly falls ill and dies, the two women’s worlds crash into each other as they embark on a dark path of no return and are forced to confront how far they are willing to go to protect what they hold most dear. Recipient of the Rooftop Filmmakers Fund Grant