A young woman grieving the death of her mother, begins a relationship with a man that will forever change the course of her life.
MOTHER TONGUE follows a young woman, LAILA, who, in grieving the death of her mother, begins a relationship with a man who will forever change the course of her life.
Laila is an Indian-American woman who has recently moved to the UK to live with her grandfather, SANTOKH, after the sudden death of her mother. The two struggle to connect over their shared grief; Laila acts out while Santokh refuses to talk about his daughter.
In an attempt to start anew, Laila has started working as a K-1 immigration officer at the US embassy, where she determines if married green card applicants are truly in love.
At night, Laila half-heartedly attends weekly "Group" sessions. At first this Group's functioning is mysterious, but soon it becomes clear that this is a grief-counseling group, where the members re-enact the stories of their departed ancestors. But instead of sharing the greatest stories of their loved ones' past, they re-enact the minutiae of their lives: the first time Nana’s great-grandmother had an orgasm, the moment Chuka’s great-grandfather realized he was in love with another man. Laila always listens, but she never contributes.
To distract herself from her grief and her job, Laila spends time drinking, dancing, and having sex with a hot new guy she has just met, OMAR. Their situationship isn't perfect, but he's a welcome distraction from Laila's crushing daily depression.
But then, one night, suddenly and without warning, Laila finds out that Omar, this man she has just started seeing, has died in a horrific car accident.
This sets off a chain reaction of events that will have an effect not just on Laila…but for the rest of her ancestral line.
Anu Valia is a writer/director whose roots are in India and Indiana. A graduate of NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, Anu's award-winning short films have screened around the world. Her short film, LUCIA, BEFORE AND AFTER premiered at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival and was awarded the Short Film Jury Award for US Fiction. Anu’s TV directing credits include SHE-HULK (Marvel, Disney+), The AFTERPARTY (Apple), And Just Like That (HBO), SHRILL(Hulu), LOVE LIFE (HBO Max), NEVER HAVE I EVER (Netflix), MIXED-ISH (ABC), AP BIO (Peacock), LOVE VICTOR (Hulu), AT HOME WITH AMY SEDARIS (TruTV), FIRST WIVES CLUB (BET+), AWKWAFINA IS NORA FROM QUEENS, THE OTHER TWO (HBO Max). She directed the pilot for Apple TV's BIG DOOR PRIZE. Her debut feature, WE STRANGERS, premiered at SXSW in 2024 and is supported by Cinereach, Sundance Institute, Women in Film, Tribeca Institute, IFP, and Hamptons Screenwriters Lab.
