Argentina’s Natalia Smirnoff to Direct ‘(Im)perfect Mom,’ Inspired on Penguin Random House Best-Seller (EXCLUSIVE)

Argentine helmer Natalia Smirnoff, director of “Puzzle,” a 2010 Berlin main Competition contender, and “Lock Charmer,” selected for the 2014 Sundance Festival, is attached to direct international co-production project “Mamá (Im)perfecta” (“(Im)perfect Mom.”) 

The project teams Colombian production outfits Laberinto Producciones and Ganas Producciones with Argentina’s Tarea Fina and Canada’s Fait Divers Media.

In development and scheduled for a May 2025 shoot, “(Im)perfect Mom” is inspired by Penguin Random House best-seller “Drunk Mom: A Memoir,” by Polish-born writer Jowita Bydlowska.

The story follows Jo, a 42-year-old woman, a successful photographer who gives birth to her first child. In the midst of the trance of motherhood, breastfeeding and the sensing changes in her body, she celebrates with her husband and friends the event, the most important of her life. 

But despite the happiness of having become a mother, from that first sip of alcohol, an addiction awakens in her that begins to grow uncontrollably and unleashes within her a struggle to contain herself, strengthen her motherhood and try not to let everything else collapse.

Selected for the fourth edition of Iberseries & Platino Industria, at its event’s Co-Production and Financing Forum, “(Im)perfect Mom’s” producers have just closed a deal with Elba McAllister’s Cineplex for distribution in Latin America.

Colombian writer-actress-producer Marcela Mar (“Love in the Time of Cholera,” “Besieged”) produces the project alongside Laberinto’s Diana Camargo (“Abducted,” “Before the Storm”), Tarea Fina’s Juan Pablo Miller and Montreal-based Fait Divers Media’s Arantza Maldonado (“Havana, from on High.”) 

“This film is necessary for us to see ourselves reflected, to accompany us in the loneliness of postpartum birth and to leave as a legacy a line of psychosocial care for mothers and families who are going through postpartum depression and/or addictions,” Mar commented.

Mar also co-leads the cast with Spanish-Argentine thesp Ernesto Alterio (“Santa Evita,” “Narcos: México,” “Ventajas de viajar en tren”) and co-writes the script alongside Smirnoff and Gloria Nancy Monsalve (“Torah Tropical”).

“This film is a journey through the unbreakable bonds formed between mother and child amidst the complexities of motherhood and addiction,” Smirnoff added.

Per Laberinto’s producer Diana Camargo, “motherhood is often idealized in our society, portraying mothers as perfect women who can face any challenge, leaving little room to recognize the ambivalence of the mothering experience and discuss the fears, insecurities and profound changes that many of us mothers have experienced.” 

Laberinto earned an Emmy International Award nomination in 2015 for the  film “Buenaventura Don’t Leave Me.” Its productions during its two decades spanning career have been aired on Caracol Televisión, Netflix, Max, Nickelodeon and Señal Colombia, among other platforms. The Bogotá-based company operates under a hybrid model that enables it to produce both its own films and provide services on national and international clients.

Born in Buenos Aires, Smirnoff ‘s debut “Puzzle” was produced by Juan Pablo Miller’s Tarea Fina, also a producer of Cannes Camera d’Or winner “Las Acacias,” Argentine Oscar candidate “The Sleepwalkers” and San Sebastian Best Latin American Film “Sublime.”