I hope women watch this and see a truthful representation of motherhood
The end We start From sees a mother fighting to save her baby in a flood-ravaged London. RACHAEL DAVIS speaks to star Jodie comer and director mahalia Belo
THE End We Start From is more than a simple tale of survival.
When London is ravaged by catastrophic flooding, a woman, her partner and their newborn baby – born as the city becomes submerged – must find a way to safety.
As well as charting their quest for survival, the film tells a complex story of motherhood, of how bringing a child into the world changes how you see it, how you move through it, and your priorities within it.
In this adaptation of Megan Hunter’s novel, written for the screen by Lady Macbeth, The Wonder and Normal People screenwriter Alice Birch and directed by Mahalia Belo, Killing Eve star Jodie Comer plays the protagonist – ‘Woman’ – as she flees her home in flooded London with her infant son.
Alongside Game Of Thrones and Plebs’ Joel Fry as her partner ‘R’, Jodie paints a portrait of motherhood at its most primal, prioritising protection above all else.
“It’s something I haven’t experienced... It was something that I was finding within myself,” says the star, 30, who doesn’t have children. “But I was so intrigued by that, because I’ve witnessed it in women in my life who’ve had children and how they navigate the world and how they are, at times, so unbelievably selfless, and sacrifice parts of themselves in order to care for someone else.
“To hear first hand that that was exactly what [Mahalia] wanted to portray, and not shy away, and also explore it in a very naturalistic way really excited me, because my hope was that women would watch this and see themselves, and see a truthful representation of what that can be like, with all the beauty and all the flaws and struggles.”
“I had never seen the massive shift of first-time parenthood depicted on the screen,” explains Mahalia of the film’s genesis.
“I was really interested in that, and I think setting it against a question about the world, and what the future of it might be, felt true to that experience, as well, because I worry about it a bit. “But at the core, it’s about parenthood, and about the changes that we go through when we have our first child.”
As we see Woman navigate the horrors of ecological disaster and the perils of new motherhood, we learn little about her life before the crisis hit. Along her journey she meets other climate refugees – including a fellow new mother played by Katherine Waterston, and a lone man played by Benedict Cumberbatch – and although we glean glimpses of who she was before through her interactions, the focus is on the here and now, survival.
Playing a role that’s such a blank canvas was “liberating”, says Jodie, who mapped out her idea of Woman’s history with Mahalia to root her while allowing the character’s anonymity to draw audiences in.
“What I loved about no one having a name was that these people could be any of us – it’s kind of ambiguous in a good way,” says the actress.
“I think because we know so little about her, it just made it more important for me and [Mahalia] to sit down, and we went through her backstory and created her, figured out where she’d come from, rooted her...
“So it was fun to have the freedom to create that, even though no one’s ever gonna know it, but we knew it, and that was important.” Of course, the vulnerability of new parenthood is also felt by fathers, and the adversity in The End We Start From seems to amplify not only R’s sense of responsibility, but also his helplessness.
As the crisis in the film progresses, it becomes clear that
the father has a difficult choice to make: many of the shelters are only allowing women and children, and while he wants to support his partner and help her care for their newborn son, he realises that perhaps the best way he can protect them is to separate from them.
His duty as a father, the traditionally masculine ideas of protection, the unimaginable emotional struggles he faces, and society’s prioritisation of mothers as primary caregiver weave a complex web of conflict for Joel’s R as the film explores the pressures of fatherhood as well as motherhood.
“It felt quite important to me that we were able to talk about male vulnerability when faced with tragedy... having to back away from what would be considered their duty, but also the problem of that idea that Woman has to hold the baby, and whether that’s fair,” says Mahalia.
“She doesn’t have the choice to leave,” Jodie interjects.
“She doesn’t have the choice,” Mahalia agrees. “We approached this film with as much humanity as we could.”
This humanity comes not only from observing how the new parents might act in the face of disaster, but also how their baby bears witness to the world.
We see glimpses of how the newborn perceives the beauty amidst says it was to explore of mothers
protecting their offspring the destruction: how he loves watching the leaves on the trees swaying in the wind, how he delights in seeing his mother’s face looking down at him.
“Something that really struck me when I had my first kid was I saw the world slightly differently,” says Mahalia. “My kid was watching – lying on the ground... – just watching the leaves, and I looked at it for the first time and saw the light behind the leaves moving in a really particular way, and that’s what was fascinating him.
“I would never have seen that if I hadn’t just caught what he was looking at, and I wanted to bring that feeling to the film.
“The baby doesn’t know any different, [and] is having the best time of its life... I found that really interesting, because I think as a parent you can go through quite a lot, but often, your kid has no idea.
“Especially because you’re giving so much to them, you’re giving so much in order for them to have that happy life.”
I had never seen the massive shift of first-time parenthood depicted on the screen
Mahalia Belo on her inspiration to make the film