Margherita (Buy) is directing a new social drama, set against the backdrop of an industrial dispute. Try as she may to remain professional, the emotional turmoil of her private life is taking a toll: an affair with one of her actors (Enrico Ianniello) has come to an end, her adolescent daughter (Beatrice Mancini) is failing Latin, but most troubling is the recent hospitalization of her formidable, beloved mother Ada (Giulia Lazzarini). Whilst her brother Giovanni (Moretti) gradually allows himself to be engulfed by his mothers last days, taking extended leave to prolong his bedside vigil, Margheritas tough schedule makes more than a daily visit tricky. Meanwhile, the famous American actor Barry Huggins (the fabulous John Turturro) has arrived, a needy and capricious personality whose brash presence on set sees things go from bad to worse, and whose general ineptitude might finally push Margherita over the edge... With characteristic openness to lifes big questions, Morettis mature and hugely entertaining film skillfully manoeuvres between pathos and comedy as it considers the uneasy relationship between artistic ambition and everyday life, the real and the imagined. Widely acclaimed at the Cannes Film Festival as Morettis best film since the Palme dOr winning The Sons Room, MIA MADRE is another rich and affectingly humanist work from one of world cinemas true masters.
