I watched Sandra Oh’s horror movie “Umma” recently and the already disturbing film takes on a terrifying new resonance in our new context. “Umma” is about an unwanted child and the mother who takes all her anger and resentment out on her daughter in grotesque displays of physical and psychological violence.
The film shows how this particular kind of violence creates generational trauma that is extremely hard to break, as we watch Oh’s character Amanda inadvertently become the woman she fought to escape. Even for all her good intentions, Amanda couldn’t manage to break the trauma bond to her abusive mother without damaging her own child first.
Overturning Roe will have this same generational effect for so many people through forced reproduction. A bleak tale to match our current reality.