Leo Solomon (Veep, Blue Bloods) will star in Mater Mortis from Ganesh Cakes Productions. Mater Mortis focuses on the generational rifts between a son and his parents in a South Asian household through the lens of horror film. Rajan (played by Solomon) butts heads with his father Jyotin (played by Siraj Huda, Patriot Act With Hasan Minhaj, The Tick) over the care of Rajan’s mother, Aparna (Kapila Juthani). Aparna is afflicted with “the rot”, a condition that puts people into a state of walking death, and now Rajan and his father walk through life trying to pretend that everything is okay.
Mater Mortis aims to use horror cinema as a lens to examine the stigmatization of mental illness in South Asian communities. “This film is important to me because it speaks to the horror I actually lived through. Of being South Asian, of having a bipolar mother, and of dealing with real life stigmas that had a concrete effect on my life as a child and then a young adult” says director Rishi Gandhi. Mater Mortis currently has a crowdfunding campaign on Seed&Spark to meet production costs.
Gandhi’s previous films include kickboxing documentary Mr. Muay Thai Nation, video game eulogy Arcade Oratory, and 90’s toy commercial send up DOOM: The Board Game: The (Spec) Ad.
Follow the crowdfunding campaign for Mater Mortis on Seed&Spark at https://www.seedandspark.com/fund/mater-mortis
