LOS ANGELES — In director Hanna Bergholm’s “Hatching,” a young gymnast, seeking comfort from her domineering and perfectionist mother, nurtures an egg that hatches into a disquieting human-bird hybrid.
The Finnish body horror, now playing in select theaters and available on VOD May 17, stars newcomer Siiri Solalinna as Tinja, a meek 12-year-old girl who struggles to live up to the high standards set for her by her mother, a mommy vlogger with a hint of coldness lurking beneath her hyperfeminine veneer.
“I think what Tinja feels from her mother is that her love is not quite genuine,” said Bergholm. “She’s trying to act in a loving way, but there’s always something a little bit more that Tinja should do in order to gain the love. And it seems that because the mother is acting charming, it must be Tinja’s fault and there must be something wrong with her. That kind of breaks her in a sense.”
