“Driving Mum” is a co-production between Iceland and Estonia, directed by Hilmar Oddsso and scored by Estonian composer Tõnu Kõrvits, who receives the PÖFF award for best cinema music.
“I’m not a film composer and don’t want to be one, but the film director Hilmar Oddsson gave me a lot of creative flexibility. He had heard my music and trusted me. I also found the story-line and plot quite intriguing and interesting,” Kõrvits said.
Icelandic director Hilmar Oddsson’s dark comedy also won the festival’s grand prix for best film. “Driving Mum” is about an old boy who has lived his entire life under the thumb of his mother and who, after her death, embarks on a long journey with her corpse along bumpy Icelandic roads to bury her in her home village.
“This film captured us with its transparent, basic and yet audacious cinematic language and and subtly humorous treatment of sensitive personal issues. It is a film that conveys the message that it’s never too late,” the jury chaired by renowned Hungarian filmmaker Ildikó Enyedi said.
The grand prize comes with €20,000 from the City of Tallinn.
“It is a travelogue filled with sorrow, sadness and regret, as well as with lots of black humor. It is visually captivating and artistically well-crafted, but it also has a warm humanity that makes it accessible to a wide audience,” Andrei Liimets, a film critic, said, adding that this year’s PÖFF jury picks lay a greater emphasis on formal competence and visually arresting cinematic language and less on the social and political relevance of the content.
“Driving Mum” will be released in Estonia next year.
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