cinematography
Daria D’Antonio
editing
Jacopo Quadri
Isabella Guglielmi
music
Battista Lena
sound
Marta Billingsley
Gianluca Gasparrini

with
Maria Elena Boccia
Battista Lena
Vittorio Lonzi
Maria Edgarda Marcucci
Nanni Moretti

productions
Fandango
Luce Cinecittà
with Rai Cinema
producers
Domenico Procacci
Laura Paolucci

Italian press office
Gloria Zerbinati
gloria.zerbinati@gmail.com

Alongside the public figure Carla Lonzi, considered to be so uncompromising, there is much to say about her private side, as fascinating as it was contradictory. There’s her tenderness and emotional fragility, her dependence on her partner, hence on a man; her complicated feelings about motherhood; and strained relationships with other women in the practice of collective harikiri called “consciousness-raising”. Drawing on invaluable, unreleased archive material, the filmmaker Francesca Archibugi, who was very close to Lonzi, brings her public life and private story, her ideas, and her legacy to the screen for the first time. These are key to understanding what women around the world are still going through and fighting for.

2026 Carla Lonzi, dentro e fuori dal mondo (doc)
2025 Illusione
2021 Il colibrì
2019 Vivere
2017 Gli sdraiati
2015 Il nome del figlio
2013 È stata lei (short)
2012 Giulia ha picchiato Filippo (doc)
2008 Questione di cuore
2005 Lezioni di volo
2002 Renzo e Lucia
2000 Domani
1997 L'albero delle pere
1997 La strana storia di Banda Sonora (doc)
1994 Con gli occhi chiusi
1994 L'unico paese al mondo (Various Authors)
1993 Il grande cocomero
1990 Verso sera
1988 Mignon è partita

“[…] While she was dying, I was reading her Taci anzi parla, diario di una femminista. It planted itself in my brain and totally changed my way of thinking. But long before, our long phone calls – after an operation on her face, Carla wouldn’t be seen in public – I can still recall word for word, dialogue upon dialogue. She taught me a few things about sex, without the slightest embarrassment or voyeurism. She was the author of La donna clitoridea e la donna vaginale, and had squarely placed sexuality at the heart of the revolution in gender roles – a gaze she would turn on the present day if she were still here. Carla wasn’t so much a mother-in-law as the most fantastic grown-up friend. Her friendship was like a gift for my eighteenth birthday and entering adulthood. It’s just that she left us too soon. […] I hope that my vision of our family will make the film more emotional and strike the right balance between reticence and a rush of affection. My aim is to have contemporary thinking dialogue with Carla as if she were still with us, and see whether, if I concentrate, I can still hear her voice. And have everyone else hear it, even those who weren’t there or never knew her or still haven’t heard of her.” (Francesca Archibugi)

Francesca Archibugi (Rome, 1960) studied psychology at the University of Rome “La Sapienza” and obtained a degree in directing from the CSC – National Film School in 1983. She directed a number of short films for RAI and for Ermanno Olmi’s Ipotesi Cinema, winning the Solinas Award for Best Screenplay in 1985. She made her feature directorial debut in 1988 with Mignon Has Come to Stay, which garnered five David di Donatello awards, two Silver Ribbons, and numerous international kudos as well. Alongside her film career, Archibugi has directed TV series such as La storia (2024, Silver Ribbon for Best Series of the Year). She has also been a screenwriter on films by Italian filmmakers the likes of Paolo Virzì, Costanza Quatriglio, and Maria Sole Tognazzi. Retrospectives of her films have been held in France, England, Germany, Argentina, Japan, and other countries. The musician Battista Lena, Carla Lonzi’s son, has scored all her films, from her first short up to this documentary.