Good Mothers

Carl Theodor Dreyer’s first short film honours the work of the Mother’s Aid Institution, a state-funded organisation offering services for new mothers.

Carl Theodor Dreyer’s first short film, shot in the summer of 1942 at Nordisk Film with a cast of non-actors, honours the work of the Mother’s Aid Institution, a state-funded organisation offering services for new mothers.

Although ostensibly a public information film, documenting the workings of a state-funded institution, its participants are all scripted and acted and their exchanges are conventionally shot. Dreyer accords the material just as much respect as his feature-film works, lighting and constructing scenes with sparse beauty, all accompanied by a stirring score from his regular composer Poul Schierbeck.