Alphan Eşeli’s latest feature film premieres in New York.
MUTTER: The Diary of a Mother, directed by Alphan Eşeli and starring Hazar Ergüçlü, had its world premiere at the 25th edition of Tribeca Film Festival in the Escape from Tribeca section — marking the director’s first feature-length venture into horror.
MUTTER: The Diary of a Mother follows Gül, a woman who gives birth under extraordinary circumstances and chooses to protect her newborn at all costs — regardless of what it is. Rooted in folk horror and anchored by a fiercely present performance from Hazar Ergüçlü, the film traces the newly single mother as she navigates debt, isolation, and the reality of a world that may be more monstrous than her child.
The film marks a deliberate departure from drama for both director and lead. Eşeli has spoken openly about the personal origins of the project, which began during the pandemic when his mother fell ill. Feeling helpless, he turned to filmmaking as the one thing he could do — and began writing. The result is a film that, beneath its genre architecture, is as much about grief, inheritance, and maternal love as it is about horror.
Ergüçlü described the central challenge of the role as performing against nothing — holding and responding to a creature that existed only in suggestion on set. “When there’s nothing that you play together with, you’re on your own and you’re in your mind,” she said. “I just tried to love the baby because that unconditional love was the main feeling coming out of me.”
MUTTER is produced under SeventyFour Films. The world premiere at Tribeca marks the film’s first international exposure, and ’74’s continued presence at the intersection of Turkish cinema and global cultural platforms.
