Why does the burden of balancing work, family and sanity almost always ends up on the shoulders of women? Hints can be gathered in "Mia Madre," winner of the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury at the Cannes Film Festival last year.
The film's female protagonist, Margherita (Margherita Buy), is a single mother and director who is unraveling before our eyes. She has just gone through a breakup, her teenage daughter is impossible to talk to and her mother is dying on a hospital bed. Though she is attractive, strong-willed and hard-working, none of Margherita's assets seem to be helping her.
Nanni Moretti's "Mia Madre" could be described as a companion piece to the director's 2001 film "The Son's Room," which won the Palme d'Or at Cannes. In that earlier movie the story focuses on a grieving father (played by Moretti) whose teenage son suddenly dies in a diving accident. The father loses his grip on reality and all but abandons his job as a therapist.