Tilda Swinton as Julie in The Eternal Daughter (A24)

Secretly filmed during Covid lockdowns in the beginning of this year, with Martin Scorsese serving as an executive producer, The Eternal Daughter is a surprise from British filmmaker Joanna Hogg, who more than meets expectations after the wide acclaim of her two previous works. Her diptych, The Souvenir and The Souvenir: Part II (2019 and 2021, respectively), represented a breakthrough moment for the director, even though she has been working since the 1980s. It was a loosely autobiographical portrayal of a young female student filmmaker named Julie dealing first with a tragic romantic experience and later transforming it into a project that allowed her to grow artistically.

You are not obliged to have seen this double bill before watching Hogg’s latest, but it certainly adds an extra layer of meaning and enjoyment to appreciate it as a veil coda to the earlier movies (and maybe this is the equivalent of an Easter egg in independent cinema). Again, she has more than a little help from her longtime collaborator Tilda Swinton. (The actress was the star of her first short film, “Caprice,” in 1986 and played the supporting role of Julie’s mother in The Souvenir, which starred Swinton’s daughter no less, and in its follow-up. The Eternal Daughter also has a character named Julie (Swinton) who is (again) a filmmaker with a close relationship to her mother, Rosalind (also played by Swinton). The only difference this time is that Julie is a middle-aged woman, and Swinton takes on both roles.

Mother and daughter (accompanied by the perceptive springer spaniel, Louis) are not staying in any hotel. It was carefully chosen by Julie as a gesture to celebrate Rosalind’s upcoming birthday: It’s a former manor, a symbol of past memories. Julie and her family used to frequent the estate during World War II, so there’s an element of nostalgia involved, at least for Julie, who is deeply interested in what her mother remembers as a source material that could inspire her next film. Guiding the conversations, she secretly records her mother. Rosalind, however, is less disposed to sentimentality. While open to answering daughter’s questions, she becomes a challenging and an elusive study object for the artist because she doesn’t provide the emotional storytelling that Julie is looking for.

Meanwhile, the entire setting is a character in itself. The surrounding heavy mist and the mysterious sounds (and some other ominous phenomenon) create an unsettling atmosphere absorbed by Julie, who spends her nights anxious and on guard while walking in and out the solitary hotel as Rosalind placidly sleeps—they seem to be the only guests around. Days are less troubling for Julie during the long chats with her mother, the predictable dinners (they learn by heart the four courses offered on the menu), and the occasional tense and contentious interactions with the sole hotel receptionist (Carly Sophia-Davies, stealing Tilda’s thunder sometimes, which is not minor compliment). But every night the filmmaker is haunted by uneasiness, a feeling that something strange is happening. (Louis, the inquisitive dog, would agree.) Is this a horror film? Guess!

Hogg has come up with a movie that is hard to figure out while watching it. It’s better to enjoy and discover it without knowing too much. There’s a least one devastating scene that involves an empty chair and a cake that could be considered one of the most precious moments of Swinton’s career. (You’ll know when you see it.) It’s enough to say that the film was staged, shot, and scored as a ghost story infused by a gothic atmosphere, almost like an anachronistic Hammer horror film. Hogg avoids obvious jump scares while sustaining an unsettling environment. Fueled by the sorrow of delayed farewells, The Eternal Daughter is a special gem that packs a wallop, the kind that will also comforts as a warm balm.

The Eternal Daughter opens in theater this December.