A ‘ferociously feminist take on the Frankenstein myth’

Laura Moss makes a standout feature debut with Birth/Rebirth – a ‘ferociously feminist take on the Frankenstein myth’…

The production is described as a ‘contemporary understanding that it is both exciting and terrifying in equal measure’ which New York Times noted as being an ‘ultrasmart, ferociously feminist take on the Frankenstein myth’.

Fresh off the film festival circuit, having premiered at both Sundance and the London Film Festival earlier this year, Birth/Rebirth features Rose (Marin Ireland), a pathologist who prefers working with corpses over social interaction. She also has an obsession — the reanimation of the dead. Celie (Judy Reyes) is a maternity nurse who has built her life around her bouncy, chatterbox six-year-old daughter, Lila (A.J. Lister).

When one tragic night, Lila suddenly falls ill and dies, the two women’s worlds crash into each other. They embark on a dark path of no return where they will be forced to confront how far they are willing to go to protect what they hold most dear.

Writer and Director Laura Moss:

“I remember the impact Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein had on me when I first read it as a pre-teen. I was delighted, not only by the material, but by the fact that it was written by a woman from the Victorian era, and it wasn’t about manners, or marriage, but about elemental questions of life and legacy.

“This film has been gestating within me for a long time, and when it finally came out as a screenplay in my thirties, it was infused with the anxieties of my particular stage of life. The fear of the transformational nature of giving birth, of a potential loss of identity, led me to craft a story of two very different mothers.”

Birth/Rebirth will be available to rent and own from 22 January 2024.