The Second Mother

Val has spent thirteen years as a live-in housekeeper and nanny for a wealthy family in São Paulo, caring for their son Fabinho while her own daughter, Jéssica, was raised by relatives in Pernambuco. Her position offers stability, but it comes with guilt over the child she left behind and with the constant, unspoken demands of her employers. When Jéssica arrives in the city for her university entrance exams, mother and daughter are reunited after years apart, though they have grown into very different people. Jéssica is ambitious and unwilling to accept the household's rigid rules, and her presence unsettles the established order of the home, forcing Val to weigh her loyalty to the family she serves against her bond with her own daughter. The film examines class divisions in Brazil and the expectations that keep them in place, with a young person's refusal to comply exposing the tensions beneath a seemingly calm household.

Anna Muylaert directed and wrote the film, which was produced by Caio Gullane, Fabiano Gullane and Muylaert. It was her first feature in the chronological list of her directing credits, followed by The Business Women's Club and The Best Mother in the World. Regina Casé plays Val, with Camila Márdila as Jéssica and Karine Teles and Lourenço Mutarelli as her employers, Bárbara and Carlos. Michel Joelsas appears as Fabinho and Helena Albergaria as Edna.

Reception was strong across measures. On IMDb it holds a rating of 7.8 from around 19,000 votes, and on TMDB a rating of 8 from roughly 800 votes. A critics' rating of 8.1 from 91 reviews places critical approval slightly above the audience scores.