International Competition
Maria Montessori
- Onsite
- 7/16 (Tue) 14:00 Audio Visual Hall
- 7/20 (Sat) 17:00 Convention Hall
Due to the nature of the work rights, this film is not available online.
©GEKO FILMS - TEMPESTA FILM
Director: Léa TODOROV
Cast: Jasmine TRINCA, Leïla BEKHTI, Rafaelle SONNEVILLE-CABY
2023 / France, Italy / 100min.
It is well-known that the founders of Amazon and Google, the singer Taylor Swift, and the shogi player Sota Fujii all received a Montessori education. This film provides a rich portrait of the dramatic life of its founder, Maria Montessori. In 1898, the unmarried Maria gave birth to Mario, and decided to leave him indefinitely with a wet nurse in the countryside—so that she could start a revolution as a modern, liberated woman. She became Italy’s first female doctor, and founded an institute to train educators to work with children with disabilities. She formed a support network with Lili, a high-class prostitute, and established a pedagogical approach that not only fostered independence but, above all, believed in autonomy of the spirit. Maria Montessori’s dramatic life as a doctor, educator, and mother is depicted in vivid color by Léa Todorov in this, her first feature film. This is the story of an unbelievably strong-willed and intelligent woman who wanted it all, and forever changed the destiny of the bourgeois society that raised her.
© François Berraldacci
Director: Léa TODOROV
Born in 1982 in Paris. Todorov started working as an assistant director on documentary films after studying political science in Paris, Vienna, and Berlin. In 2012, the documentary Saving Humanity During Office Hours marked her directorial debut. She co-directed Russian Utopia in 2014. The following year, she wrote the script for School Revolution: 1918–1939 (16), a documentary about alternative education directed by Joanna Grudzińska. The birth of Todorov’s daughter, who has a genetic disease, was a decisive turning point in the making of Maria Montessori.
Message
The original French title of the film is La Nouvelle Femme (which means “the new woman”). This is an expression that is commonly used by historians to designate feminist, educated, and independent women around the turn of the twentieth century who succeeded in gaining access to a professional position and academic careers, and who used their knowledge to assert their place in society. I hope this film will question our society’s lack of ambition to be more inclusive.
