MOTHER tells the emotional story of 81 year old Alice Gimes, a Hungarian woman who fled to Switzerland with her six-year old son after the 1956 Soviet invasion, while her husband is executed by the Stalinist regime in Hungary because he was thought to be a leading "counter-revolutionary."

Now she leads a divided life: one half in Hungary, the other half in Switzerland. One half set in reality while the other is spent in a dream world, so as to be able to endure reality.

Hers is the story of a lovely youth before the war, shattered by a breakdown in history. Lucy escaped being deported to Auschwitz and after the war committed herself to the communist movement. She married the journalist Miklos Gimes, whose true-to-the-party-line career was taking off. But after a personal political change, Miklos Gimes became a leader of the Hungarian revolt of 1956, and was executed in 1958. Lucy Gimes fled to Switzerland, where she and her son made a new start as immigrants.

Since the end of the Cold War, Lucy returns to Hungary regularly, where her husband has a prestigious reputation as political martyr. However, Lucy's life is still painful. In Hungary she is confronted with the former lover of her husband, who claims to be his widow. At the same time Lucy is forced to clear up unpleasant questions in her homeland about her role during the dark Stalinist period.

At a ripe old age, Lucy Gimes must rewrite her life story. For her son, the filmmaker, however, it opens up an entirely new world: the magic and the burden of the past.

"One of the best documentaries I have seen this year, an insightful and powerful reminder of the human costs of tyranny, but also a surprisingly witty and plain-spoken film about the unexpected ways that politics can strain personal relationships."—George Robinson, The Jewish Week

"Since so many Swiss filmmakers originate elsewhere, the ambivalence of expatriation is ubiquitous, but rarely as gripping as in... MUTTER (MOTHER), in which the son and namesake of the beloved, martyred Hungarian bureaucrat disinters his family's past by interviewing his tough and savvy mother, Lucy. As the poltergeists of Communism are busy breaking plates and slamming doors, Gimes unearths tons of vintage archival and home movie footage, all leading to the 1989 "official burial" of the executed father (as part of an all-day, televised stadium funeral service for every "disappeared" citizen). Implicit in MUTTER... is the reality that sanctuary in Switzerland does not translate to detachment from the past or the chaos outside its hills."—Michael Atkinson, The Village Voice

"MOTHER is moving for it's biographical content as much as it is for the political and historical wealth. [Lucy] fascinates us with her penetrating insights into the events and inner workings of the [Hungarian] system so often misunderstood in the oversimplified terms of cliche."—Tout Cinema

"Recommended. An interesting insider's tale with valuable historical footage and descriptions."—Educational Media Reviews Online