The Disappearance of My Mother

Beniamino Barrese / Italy / 2019 / Czech Premiere / 90 min.

synopsis

Benedetta Barzini, a former icon of the 1960s fashion world, provocative intellectual and leader of the feminist movement, educator, publicist, willful wife and mother, is planning a symbolic retirement. She is unable to escape the hectic world of media attention and her own son. Her main commitment is a promise to her son, a filmmaker, who decides to make an intimate portrait of his mother and the trajectory of her disappearance from the fake world of media images, simulacra and perfidious morality. Evasive glances and frank confessions, depression and spontaneous dancing. A touching, comic and sentimental struggle of a mother and her son in the (self)reflection of the film lens.

“Disappearance of My Mother is rife with grand philosophical questions about beauty, capitalism, love, life, and death, while still maintaining the intimacy of a family connection.” (Lorri Kikta, Filmthreat)

biography

Beniamino Barrese (1986) studied philosophy at the Statale di Milano, political philosophy at King’s College London and cinematography at the Beaconsfield Film School. Since 2011 he has been working as a filmmaker, cinematographer and photographer of documentaries, commercials and fashion films. Disappearance of My Mother is his feature documentary debut.