Abstract

‘Alina Marazzi occupies a very special place in the history of Italian women filmmakers for her experimental style and feminist approach’ (Cristina Gamberi)

Synopsis: Pauline (Charlotte Rampling) returns to Turin ‐ her place of birth ‐ for the first time after many years and gets in touch with Angela (Maria Grazia Mandruzzato), whom she had earlier met abroad and who now manages a Maternity Center. Here Pauline undertakes a research project on the experiences and problems of today’s mothers, starting from the statements, videos, photographs collected by Angela. Among the mothers attending the Center there is Emma (Elena Radonicich), a young and elusive dancer in deep crisis: she doesn’t know how to face the responsibilities demanded by motherhood and sees her life at a standstill. She feels alone and inept. Between the two women, a relationship of complicity develops, which in a play of reflections, will lead Pauline to come to terms with her own tragic past and allow Emma to discover a meaningful sense of self in her new identity as a mother.

Director’s notes: I was with my newborn son when a woman drew near saying to me with a smile: “How beautiful babies are in the arms of others!” An apparently banal comment made me reflect on the conflicts that can occur in a mother‐child relationship. Every mother is aware of that sentiment in balance between love and refusal of her own child. It’s a painful tension to experience and very hard to confess, inasmuch as rubbing against the common conception of that primordial bond. With this film, I wanted to explore and dramatize the ambivalence of the maternal sentiment and the resistance, which even till this day, there is in accepting and facing it. To honor the complexity of this sentiment, I chose to integrate the fictional with diverse elements: archive footage, animated clips, documentary sequences, through which I could evoke the various emotional levels this tension gives rise to in those living through it.

Marazzi’s previous films include Un’ora sola ti vorrei [For One More Hour With You] (2002) and Vogliamo anche le rose [We Want Roses Too] (2007).

The director will introduce the film and take questions after the screening.