The Eyes of My Mother(2016)

Plot Summary

• Francisca and her parents live on a farm where they raise animals. A trained surgeon, Francisca's mother teaches her how to remove eyeballs from farm animals, as well as the legend of St. Francis of Assisi. One day, Charlie, a door-to-door salesman, asks to use the bathroom. Against her better judgment, Francisca's mother lets him into the house. Charlie draws a gun and takes Francisca's mother into the bathroom. When her father comes home, he finds Charlie bludgeoning his wife's body in the tub. He knocks Charlie out and chains him up in the barn. Francisca and her father bury her mother in the backyard. Francisca visits Charlie and he explains the thrill of killing others. Francisca removes Charlie's eyes and vocal cords, then bags them and puts them in the refrigerator. She explains to Charlie that he was not killed because he is her only friend and she will look after him.Years later, the adult Francisca's father dies, and she preserves the body. She meets a young woman, Kimiko, at a bar. Kimiko and Francisca return to her home, but after learning that Francisca's mother was killed, Kimiko is frightened when Francisca jokes oddly that she murdered her father. Kimiko tries to leave but Francisca murders her, chops her up and bags her organs, putting them in her refrigerator. Afterward, she bathes Charlie, still chained up in the barn, and brings him inside to sleep with her. Charlie attempts to escape, but she catches him and repeatedly stabs him. She tells him that he was right; killing another person "feels amazing".However, now distraught at being completely alone, she wanders the woods until she reaches a highway and catches a ride with a woman named Lucy back to the house. Lucy has a baby son named Antonio who Francisca kidnaps upon reaching the house. She stabs Lucy and praises her dead mother for bringing the pair to her, then keeps Lucy's son as her own child. Like Charlie, Lucy has her eyes and vocal cords cut out and is kept chained up in the barn.When Antonio grows to about 8-9 years old, he becomes curious about the barn, seeing his mother go in and out of it and having been told to never enter. One night, while Francisca's asleep, he enters the barn and is shocked at seeing a person in chains, blind and groaning unintelligibly - his biological mother.Lucy later escapes the barn, and blindly makes her way to a road where a trucker finds her. Francisca discovers the escape and digs up her mother's body, cradling the skeleton and telling her how much she misses her. Upon her return to the house, she sees police coming to the house and rushes to wake Antonio. Taking him into the bathroom while holding a knife, she screams that the police will never take her baby. A gunshot is heard, and the film ends.

Storyline

• In their secluded farmhouse, a mother, formerly a surgeon in Portugal, teaches her daughter, Francisca, to understand anatomy and be unfazed by death. One afternoon, a mysterious visitor horrifyingly shatters the idyll of Francisca's family life, deeply traumatizing the young girl, but also awakening some unique curiosities. Though she clings to her increasingly reticent father, Francisca's loneliness and scarred nature converge years later when her longing to connect with the world around her takes on a distinctly dark form. — Magnet Releasing Sheltered from the outside world, Francisca develops a profound, unbreakable bond with her guardian, Mother, a former surgeon from Portugal. As a result, Mother shares her surgical knowledge with Francisca, away from prying eyes. As the years pass, Francisca hones her skills, making Mother proud. But something is missing--seeking solace in all the wrong places to fill the void in her black heart won't cut it. And yearning for more, Francisca embarks on a twisted journey of loneliness, obsession, and sheer terror. — Nick Riganas