film

When Mother Comes Home From Christmas

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Producer(s)	Vangelis Kalambakas and Nilita Vachan
Director(s)	Nilita Vachani
Release Date	1999
Work In Progress	n
Runtime	109 min
Youth Media	n

Film Description

Josephine leaves her home and three children in Sri Lanka for Athens, Greece, where she finds work caring for a two-year-old girl, Isadora, whose own mother spends most of her time in Paris. Josephine’s children live in an orphanage, supported by the money their mother sends. For Christmas, both mothers return home. It has been eight years since Josephine has seen her children. The film captures the stories of both mothers and their respective relationships with their children.

For many women in developing countries, a way to support their families is to leave their home and country and work abroad as domestic help. Vachani’s camera sensitively explores this emotional and economic web of relationships and the dramatic effects of the international domestic labor market on Josephine’s family. An anthropologist and award-winning filmmaker, Vachani was also assistant director on Mira Nair’s Salaam Bombay and currently lives in Greece.

—Irina Leimbache

Best Documentary, Festival dei Popoli, Florence, 1996.

Best Documentary, Festival Internazionale Cinema Delle Donne, Torino, 1997.

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Last Updated On:	May 22, 2012