THE ETERNAL DAUGHTER World Cinema

On the heels of her twofold memoir THE SOUVENIR, Joanna Hogg once again turns her lens to the tightly-wound, minute yet nebulous magnetism of mother-daughter relationships in this spiritual third installment. Starring the chameleonic Tilda Swinton as both Julie and her aging mother Rosalind, the two return to a former family manor that now functions as an eerily vacant hotel to celebrate the latter’s birthday. Over the course of their stay, as they settle down into new rituals of nightly dog walks in the foggy garden, thorny interactions with the snarky concierge and maze-like strolls through dimly lit creaky hallways, the duo slowly excavate long-buried secrets and unspoken sentiments. Keenly employing the pastiche and codes of the horror mystery, Hogg lifts its gothic facade to reveal a hauntingly stirring tale on grief and memory. –Anna Li