Mia madre

Mia madre (2015) is an Italian drama from director Nanni Moretti — watch it online on iFILM. Margherita Buy plays Margherita, a filmmaker who is simultaneously shooting a socially committed film, ending a long relationship, arguing with her teenage daughter, and spending stolen hours at her mother's hospital bedside. Her mother is dying, and Margherita cannot quite stop the rest of life from happening anyway.

Into the chaos of the shoot arrives Barry (John Turturro), an American actor with enormous confidence and no apparent ability to remember his lines. He's funnier than he is frustrating, which says something about Moretti's tonal control. Moretti himself plays Margherita's brother — the one person who has cleared his schedule to simply be with their mother.

The film took the Jury Prize at Cannes in 2015. Moretti made it after losing his own parents, and that shows not as grief performed for the camera but as a quiet, accurate understanding of how loss works: it doesn't pause for you. Stream Mia madre (2015) online on iFILM.