The Eyes of My Mother

A young Portuguese-American woman named Francisca grows up on an isolated farm, where her mother, a former surgeon, teaches her about anatomy. That quiet life ends when a stranger named Charlie arrives at the house while her father is away and commits a violent act that changes Francisca permanently. What follows traces how this trauma shapes her as she grows into adulthood, and how her attempts to connect with other people take unsettling forms.

This is the debut feature of Nicolas Pesce, who wrote the screenplay and would go on to direct The Grudge and Piercing, the latter released in the same year as this film. Kika Magalhaes plays the adult Francisca, with Diana Agostini as her mother, Will Brill as Charlie, Olivia Bond as the young Francisca, Clara Wong as Kimiko and Joey Curtis-Green as Antonio. The production was handled by Tandem Pictures and Borderline Presents, with Schuyler Weiss, Jacob Wasserman and Max Born producing. The film runs just 76 minutes.

On IMDb, the film holds a 6.8 out of 10 from 101 critics' reviews, while on TMDB it has a 6.2 out of 10 from 374 votes, a gap that suggests critics responded to it more warmly than general viewers did. Made on a small scale in the United States, it belongs to the drama and horror genres, combining a restrained character study with disturbing material.