Undressing My Mother and love and death in rural Ireland

Undressing My Mother raises questions about nakedness, nudity and nation, and the power inherent in mature women's bodies. This essay examines Wardrop's film in the context of other works that celebrate the aging Venus as motherland. It also explores how the film, which is both an act of mourning for his father and an acceptance of his inheritance, represents a coming of age for an Irish film-maker son.