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The Reedlands · Part I · Dark fantasy · Creature fable

The River Mother

The Reedlands, a marsh country of stilt houses and wide grey rivers27 minReleased 19 September 2026

A lonely ferrywoman pulls a strange egg from the river on a stormy night. What hatches will feed her village, frighten its elders, and one day decide whether the whole valley drowns.

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868K views11:08 average view duration27 min19 September 2026As of 25 September 2026

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The story

In the Reedlands, a marsh country of stilt houses and wide grey rivers, Suri — a young widow deep in debt — pulls a strange egg from the river on the night of a storm.

She secretly raises what hatches and names it Rill. As Rill grows, the nets fill again, and so does the village’s fear.

When the grain merchant Madam Kora and Elder Oshan, keeper of the Flood Bell, come to hunt it down, Suri must choose between her child and her home.

The Reedlands · Part I  ·  Watch the whole story in order →

Continue the story: The River Mother II: The Other Child →

Stills

Suri kneels on the lantern-lit landing, face to face with the grown river creature RillSuri bends over the newly hatched Rill, small enough to hold in two handsYoung Rill swims beside the boat in green, firefly-lit waterSuri poles her boat down a narrow channel between walls of reedsMadam Kora, the grain merchant, weighs a sack at her stallA wall of brown floodwater rises beneath the bell posts of the Old Wall
From the bestiary

Creatures in this film

Young Rill swimming in green, firefly-lit water
The River Mother’s child

Rill

Pulled from the river as an egg on the night of a storm, Rill was raised in secret by the ferrywoman Suri.

An enormous river creature’s head rises beside a tiny boat
What lives at the bottom of the wide river

The River Guardian

A vast gliding shape under the storm, glimpsed only as a glowing belly line and one enormous eye.

Next film · Part II

The River Mother II: The Other Child

Twenty years after the flood, a ferrywoman raises a river creature with a name. The man across the water raised its sibling with a ring through its jaw.

Continue the story →