Saving Mum: Our Family Secret

In this debut documentary for Channel 4’s First Cut strand, filmmaker Maleena Pone examines her relationship with her mother, Jasbir, as they revisit their shared history. The film follows Maleena’s attempt to understand and address the long-term effects of her mother’s alcohol use on their family, exploring a past shaped by silence, intergenerational trauma, and cultural stigma.

Filmed across the UK and Costa Rica, Saving Mum documents a series of conversations and reflections between mother and daughter, set against the backdrop of South Asian family dynamics. Through these interactions, the film addresses the wider cultural silence around alcoholism within British South Asian communities and the complex impact it can have on familial relationships.

This observational documentary provides a personal account of how families live with, adapt to, and attempt to make sense of difficult emotional legacies. While grounded in one family’s experience, the film highlights themes that resonate more broadly: parental responsibility, adult-child caregiving, and the long-term effects of addiction on family structures.

Directed by Maleena Pone

Produced by StoryTell-Her Studios and Dancing Ledge Productions 

Commissioned by Channel 4.