Mia Madre

Margherita (Margherita Buy), a director, is halfway through shooting a social-realist film about protesting factory workers.

Divorced from the father of her teenage daughter and somewhat distracted by managing the actors on her film set – she’s romantically entangled with one, and acting as a quasi-mother to another (played by John Turturro) – she is nevertheless a model of composure.

But then her elderly mother Ada (Guilia Lazzarini) goes into hospital, and the normally calm and efficient Margherita struggles to cope with the reality and import of the situation. Instead, her brother Giovanni (Moretti) picks up the slack, as Margherita veers towards breakdown.

Garnering great reviews from its screenings in Competition at Cannes in May, this vastly witty, eloquent and self-reflexive film explores familial loss, ageing, gender roles and the process of filmmaking.