A Bath In My Mothers Womb - A film by Mona Namér exploring metamorphosis through movement

Interview & Words by Jameela Elfaki

“In a dream landscape outside the physical world, the mind and body floats between different mental states in the search for total liberation.” A Bath In My Mother’s Womb is an experimental short that through dance, explores the stages of birth, chaos and stillness.”

Moroccan-Swedish dancer, choreographer and visual artist from Gothenburg, Sweden - Mona Namér, takes us through a portal in her mind to another realm with an elemental, stirring and freeing short film, A Bath in My Mothers Womb.

Exploring themes of metamorphosis through expressive movement, cinematic visuals and a pulsating score, Mona submerges us in her personal journey, unearthing her own trauma, surrounding identity, mental health and healing. The short film focuses on the different states and stages of birth; the juxtaposition of chaos and stillness and its cycles as a metaphor of life. In the dream landscape created by Mona, both nature and mankind have the opportunity to heal and be reborn.

The power of movement in this film is truly mesmerising and beautiful, with both synchronised sequences and individuality, the body is used as a vessel and tool to translate her deepest thoughts into physical art. Mona’s choreography and dancing in the film exudes her vulnerability and struggle, but also her strength, balance and serenity. She encourages us to engage in our own stillness, and to step outside the lines of our busy lives for the duration of the film.

I sat down to speak to Mona about the processes of film making and her inspirations behind the experimental film.

It’s such a unique and wonderful concept. How did the idea for this film come about? What inspired it and how was this developed into a film?

I remember that my friend had just done a study on the metamorphosis process and what stayed with me from her research was that if the caterpillar was interrupted in it’s stillness, it did not evolve into a butterfly. Something in that story really resonated with me. That this transformation required such introspection and internal energy, made me dive even deeper into my own journey of dealing with trauma, identity, mental health and healing. 

 ‘A Bath In My Mother’s Womb’ was created through a solo piece that I choreographed and performed on stage in 2019 called ‘Introspective’ based on the same musical score as the film. I was in a creative process of exploring themes and movement that reflected my inner state of mind and it honestly got quite heavy in that period. 

I continued working with the body as a vessel and tool to translate my current journey, which resulted in a photography and collage series called ‘Where is My Body?’ (WIMB?) - that I think really set the cinematic language for how the film looks today. The project explores psychological narratives, states of mind, and the feeling of floating around inside and outside of your own body. Exploring this world of dream realms made me note the necessary mental place as I drift away to, to find strength and desire - and that’s a place of visualising my dreams, the ability to see possibilities and how art, creativity and community are used as tools to bind and build people and society.

As I was planning to extend the solo-piece to a full-length stage production with an ensemble, the pandemic hit in 2020. Live shows were canceled and venues were shutting down so I decided this was the time to explore my interest for film. The title came to me while floating in a lagoon on the island Gotland, it relates to our mother, nature and water as a symbol of safety, transformation and the fluid we are born in, consists of and that purifies us. 

How did your collaboration with Director Sofia Aedo Zahou come about?

The first person I presented my idea to is my friend and Director of Photography Mika Aberra. We started brainstorming the script almost a year before shooting and later on the team grew very organically by asking people that inspire me and whose work I look up to. I met the producers Maida Krak and Amelie Svenstedt who runs the production company ‘Madbunny Film’ at a commercial I danced in and connected with their energy immediately.

Since I am also dancing in the film I needed a co-director that could translate my vision and communicate with the film crew in pre-production and most importantly on set. I had seen Sofia’s short film ‘Mansa: An Ode To Self Exploration’ which I absolutely love and could really relate to her way of depicting dance and her sense of abstract expression. She came into the project like a heaven-sent angel and worked closely with Mika into developing a shot-list, attending rehearsals with all the dancers and contributing with a lot of dramaturgic input and support to keep the story consistent. I’ve learnt so much directing wise from Sofia throughout shooting and especially how to carry a film through post-production. We have also formed this sisterly bond since and talk almost everyday! I’ve had the pleasure to meet and exchange with so many talented creatives throughout the process and feel very grateful that we have realised this piece together.  

What was it like working with such a large crew of dancers? There are many elements and locations featured in the film, including water which is beautiful. How did you find working with this? 

As you mention, it was a large group of dancers and film crew on set too. Also, different dancers in different scenes - so it was a puzzle while both rehearsing and filming to keep everyone warmed up and ready. We shot the two first locations in one day which is a miracle we even pulled through - because of the many locations and transitions between them everything took much longer than expected of course, but the team kept such a good spirit and I’m lucky to have worked with producers Maida Krak and Amelie Svenstedt from Madbunny Production who coordinated everything. For example, we had a big mirror cracking in the second scene which was gonna be used as a podium and Sofia and I had to change a bit of the story on set.

The second day we filmed at a big lime stone quarry where we also shot the water scenes. Somewhere in my mind I had this image of doing the floating scene in a one-shot but syncing ten bodies while floating, keeping facial expressions and body temperatures and taking direction while having your ears under water was extremely optimistic haha! Sweden doesn’t have the warmest summer nights so it got pretty cold - I’m grateful myself and some other dancers had done some ice bathing though, but the water scene took a long time. 

How did you create the movement and choreography for the film and what was the process/inspiration for the movement?

While writing the story for ‘A Bath In My Mother’s Womb’ I wanted to explore the different states of birth, chaos and stillness and its cycle as a metaphor of life. From my own experience I think of the mind as different portals - when I am in one mind-state and feel stagnated or confused there is always another portal that will open up and suck me into another direction and that will happen over and over again. It’s kind of the acceptance of letting oneself go through these portals where I think my own healing has started.

The film's intro, which is the “Birth” stage, is inspired by the metamorphosis transformation which then follows the viewer into the womb. All ideas that I got were sketched down and mapped out on a paper where I drew the different characters, the formations and how I wanted the dancers to move around the space. From that I developed the choreography and movement direction to communicate with the dancers of which essence to express in their freestyle sections. In a fusion of the dance styles I practice mostly - Hip Hop and House the movement explores concepts such as identity, vulnerability, struggle, exhaustion, dreams, the collective and balance.

Working parallel with dance and film we talked a lot about how to depict this surrealistic essence and ideas of using blurry language, confusion and almost boxing in the viewer rather than serving a whole space in every frame. I wanted to explore our ability to imagine things we don’t see and also reflect a time of isolation, distance and longing in the way that the characters and the movement are very close up.

I loved that you had Little Dragon doing the music, could you tell us how that came about? 

I shared studio building with Little Dragon in my hometown Gothenburg for five years. We became friends and had worked together earlier on some projects. When I mentioned my dance piece to Yukimi, which first started as a solo performance on stage, I got some songs from their archive and the music immediately gave me visions of various scenes, movements and feelings I wanted to go for. We mixed a score for the first project and then I used the same music to create the film, which Håkan from the band and I developed further and mixed during post-production. I really admire Little Dragon’s magical frequency in sound that is so inspiring to move to, it’s very dreamy, unique and raw. The last transition in the film has this sound that made me think of glitter and that inspired the basketball hoop. I think that’s one of my favourite scenes.  

What are your hopes for the film? Where does it take you next?

My hopes for the film… I guess I really want people who watch it to space away for 10 minutes and just be in the moment. 

Currently I am planning to extend ‘A Bath In My Mother’s Womb’ to a full-length stage production. Working with this film has given birth to so many new ideas and dimensions in my way of creating performing arts so that’s something I will experiment with.

Also, I’m in post-production for another film we shot in May last year called ‘Hawa’ (“Air” in Arabic) in collaboration with my friend and photographer/director Sanna Holm. I started writing on some new scripts and would love to work more on set both as a director and choreograph movies etc. In the end of the day what i’m most passionate about is to collaborate and create with other creatives!

You can follow more of Mona’s work here.

FILM CREDITS

A film by Mona Namér

Creative Director, Choreographer & Written by: Mona Namér

Music: Little Dragon
Film Director: Sofia Aedo Zahou

DOP: Sara Dehlin & Mika Aberra

Producers: Maida Krak & Amelie Svenstedt

Production Company: MADBUNNY FILM

Set Design: Lisa Berkert Wallard

Styling: Fernando Torres
MUA: Hanna Warsame
Hair stylist: Maurine Tugavune

Focus Puller: Jesper Lundqvist

2AC/DIT: Greta Bondelid Gaffer: Carl Erskine
Bestboy: Charles Felipe

2nd electrician: Farah Adam

Grip: Hugo Witting
Bestboy Grip: Albin Hjelm

Cast/Dancers
Salomon Mpondo-Dicka Mona Namér
Nyat Kibreab
Timothy Kakeeto
Marco Wihlborg
Mia Hellberg
Fredrik Quiñones
Aline Bennou
Kamilla Halid
Amir Ashoor
Lamin Holmén

FAD: Hawa Sanneh
Production assistant: Reika Xappola Farman
Runner: Tim Waclaw
Stylist assistant: Katija Hirsch
Set Design assistants: Damón Zurawski, Fredrik Dan Sundberg, Sabrina Elhafi, Patryk Konopacki

Make-up assistant: Mery Mekonnen
Hair stylist assistant: Lo von Krogh

Editor: Tiyam Pour Khabbaz

Colorist: Sander van Wijk

Online: Andrea Vasquez

Graphics: Patryk Konopacki

Sound mix: Håkan Wirenstrand

Thanks to:
Daniel Thisell/Ljud&Bild Senay Berhe
Spring Studios

4.

Danscenter Fryshuset Danscentrum Stockholm Yvonne/Stenhuggarebyn NMBRS Studio

Supported by:

Swedish Arts Council City of Gothenburg KulturUngdom
Kreativa Fonden Botkyrka Region Västra Götaland