A Mother’s Embrace review – woozy serving of trauma horror as a firefighter reckons with a troubled past

T he year is 1996, the country is Brazil , and young firefighter Ana (Marjorie Estiano) is returning to work after freezing up on the job. We see in flashback that, as a young child, she survived the horrific experience of her disturbed mother attempting to carry out a murder-suicide. Unluckily, one of her first jobs after returning to work is to respond to a call from a dilapidated nursing home in the middle of nowhere. The first sign that something is amiss when she and the crew rock up, is that nobody at the home will admit to having made the call in the first place. The place itself is also obviously trouble; it’s got the kind of damp in the walls that isn’t just a challenge for estate agents, but might also seep into your soul.

The stage is thus set for Ana’s past and present day