Mothers have long been absent from dystopian stories. ‘Maternal cli-fi’ is changing the narrative

Jodie Comer in The End We Start From. Signature Entertainment

Writing over 30 years ago, feminist film scholar E. Ann Kaplan famously described mothers in cinema as “an absent presence” – background figures that might facilitate the narrative but who are rarely, if ever, its focus.

I am palpably reminded of this watching the opening scenes of Mahalia Belo’s assured debut feature film The End We Start From.