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FLOODS OF TEARS
THE END WE START FROM Eco-crisis meets maternal strength in Jodie Comer’s latest.
‘It was a big learning curve for her’
MAHALIA BELO
When BAFTA-winning director Mahalia Belo (Ellen) read Megan Hunter’s 2017 novel The End We Start From, even before it was published, she immediately wanted to bring it to the screen. ‘I was nervous about how it’d be adapted, partly because there’s this background [of an] ecological disaster,’ she explains. ‘I thought that if they wanted to make the film, they’d want to make a disaster thriller! And I felt that the most exciting part of that book was what it’s talking about: the devastating [feeling] and beauty of having a first child.’
The story begins with London partly submerged after a great flood. Food is scarce but Hunter’s book isn’t so much about survival as what happens to two young parents (Jodie Comer, Joel Fry) who have a newborn. Belo was relieved when she received an adaptation by Alice Birch (Lady Macbeth, Normal People), which follows this new family when they leave London in search of shelter. ‘Alice’s script managed to navigate [the novel] in a way that felt authentic and true to that experience,’ Belo notes.
Benedict Cumberbatch’s company SunnyMarch was involved at this point, – with the actor joining an impressive cast that also includes Katherine Waterston and Mark Strong. But it was Killing Eve’s Comer who was the most crucial. ‘It was a big learning curve for her. Having your first child is quite a specific thing that happens to you. And so she did a fair bit of research,’ says Belo who, unlike Comer, is a mother. Both Comer and Fry also talked to a midwife and took NCT classes to understand exactly what it’s like to be an expectant parent.
The ultra-dedicated Comer, credited just as ‘Woman’ in the film, began exchanging messages with Belo, even sending her videos of a mother habitually rocking her leg, a mannerism formed from the constant need to calm her child. ‘I remember in rehearsal, she was really nervous,’ says Belo. ‘Just to hold a baby. We had a newborn for her to hold and she was shaking. The responsibility of that… but actually, it’s true even with your own child. How do you hold a baby if you’ve never really done it?’
With cunningly deployed VFX showing a watery London, Belo also called in a flood specialist to advise on what might happen. Above all, realism was key. ‘I hate the word dystopia when it comes to a climate crisis, because dystopia feels over there in some way,’ she notes. ‘And actually, it’s happening to people. But at the same time, I can’t tell that story. This is a very specific story about one person who happens to have a baby in this particular environment. So, for me, I was like, “OK, it’s not just about an eco-disaster, it’s also a metaphor for motherhood.”’
THE END WE START FROM IS IN CINEMAS FROM 19 JANUARY.