What makes someone a good mother? After the tragic death of her eldest daughter, Val left her kids and family behind and escaped into the Colombian jungle to search for her identity. Clare Weiskopf, the director of this film, was 11 years old at the time and couldn’t understand what her mother was looking for. Thirty years later, when she becomes pregnant, she decides to confront her mother, heal the wounds of the past and try to define motherhood on her own terms. She visits Val in her heavenly habitat in the Amazon region of Colombia and films her weaving bracelets in her timber hut, driving her moped to the market and cooking fish on a wood-burning stove. Why did Val hit the road when her two children needed her so badly? This is a fascinating tug of war between freedom and responsibility – with all the guilt and sacrifice they entail. Should you follow the accepted course, act selflessly and devote yourself to your children, or is your own life the most important in the end?
