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Narrative & characters

At the centre of Mamma + mamma are Karole (Linda Caridi) and Ali (Maria Roveran), on-screen counterparts of the director Karole Di Tommaso and her partner. The film opens with a dedication to the director’s partner, confirming this autobiographical frame. Its narrative spark is the couple’s attempt to conceive through private insemination in Spain – necessary because Italian law excludes same-sex couples (since 2024, it is worth recalling, the Meloni government has made even this form of insemination punishable under law, indeed a “universal crime”). From here the story unfolds in three directions: a comic strand, as they rent out a room in their Roman flat to unlikely tourists, to finance the costly procedure; a more dramatic focus on the couple’s own emotional, physical and financial struggles; and the challenges posed by their relationships with others, especially Ali’s ex-boyfriend Andrea, now their flatmate, and Karole’s family in Molise.

Although both women are central to the film, Karole is the protagonist. The film grants greater access to her thoughts, anxieties, and desires than to Ali’s, even though it is Ali who undergoes insemination and will carry the child. This asymmetry partly reflects the autobiographical perspective, but it also foregrounds Karole’s emotional journey. Her fears about the physical toll of the process on her girlfriend, her self-doubt as a potential parent, and her sense of being “less real” because she is neither donor nor carrier emerge powerfully. 

The sequences regarding Karole’s family relationships further develop these themes while interestingly avoiding clichés: Karole’s brother disapproves of the couple’s costly determination to conceive, while her grandfather, rather than embodying generational prejudice, offers unconditional love and even financial support. Such portrayals challenge stereotypes about older and younger generations, but also about southern Italian families. The authenticity of the sequences in Molise is augmented by the casting of non-professionals: Di Tommaso’s own mother and family friends as the townspeople. 

Two supporting characters enrich the film’s social texture. Andrea (Andrea Tagliaferri), Ali’s (heterosexual) ex and their flatmate, represents continuity and complication. His presence reminds us that queer families do not form in isolation: past relationships, male figures, and unresolved ties shape new arrangements. At times he behaves in ways that might grate – he is unstable, dependent, egocentric – but the film resists caricature, instead presenting him as part of a complex web of friendship, history, and obligation.

Tofail (Sanjay Kansa Banik), a South Asian shopkeeper, becomes involved through small acts of assistance, such as driving a guest to the airport. His presence broadens the narrative beyond sexuality and family to touch on migration, class, and belonging. Yet the portrayal risks flattening him: his focus on money, and his bafflement at Karole’s unpaid generosity, cast him as pragmatic to the point of lacking empathy. While this reflects real economic pressures, it inadvertently contrasts him unfavourably with the more idealised protagonists, offering a somewhat reductive view of immigrant experience.

Taken together, Mamma + mamma offers a warm, semi-comic exploration of queer family-making, while also sketching intersecting identities and social dynamics. It is strongest in its autobiographical honesty and nuanced family portraits, though its representation of broader diversity remains uneven.

Stereotypes & strategies of inclusion

Dreaming of Loss

The film begins with a striking dream sequence: Karole and Ali push a pram over a bridge, with greenery in the background. What begins as a moment of serenity abruptly turns into a nightmare when Karole realises the baby has vanished and she must hurry to find it, over what is revealed to be a dry, lifeless and arid background under the bridge. This opening anticipates the emotional oscillations that will mark the entire narrative, while also immediately foregrounding Karole’s anxieties, which remain at the centre of the film.

The landscape itself functions symbolically. The cracked, dry ground foreshadows Karole’s fear of infertility, later contrasted with the fertile, green terrain of her family’s Molise, where she will reconnect with her grandfather while working the land. Fertility, both literal and metaphorical, becomes a recurring motif.Stylistically, the scene reflects the film’s “quirky” aesthetic. Karole and Ali’s voices are deliberately playful, sometimes exaggeratedly sweet. Bright costumes, saturated lighting, and a vibrant mise-en-scène signal the couple’s positive outlook, even if this sometimes jars with the darker realities of their struggle. The dream thus sets the tone for a film that negotiates between comedy, whimsy, and genuine emotional weight, underneath a whimsical style that creates a feeling reminiscent of the French film Amélie.

Between Comedy and Intimacy

One of the key sequences of the film takes place in Barcelona, where the couple travel for insemination at the Girexx clinic. Before the procedure, a humorous interview with a poet includes the awkward question of whether the two women are sisters. While no confrontation ultimately arises, the scene leaves space for the viewer to reflect on the persistence of such assumptions and the ever-present for queer couples to qualify their relationship. 

The film’s comic texture continues with a sequence of escalating mishaps: the women forget their keys and a chaotic break-in at their own home involving their housemate Andrea – at the time working as an extra as a dead body in a funeral –their neighbour Tofail, a ladder, and even lowering a dog from the balcony. Here, the rapid montage with the absurd actions both capture and poke fun at the gravity of the situation.

In contrast, the insemination itself is shot with a slower pace and more intimacy. The director briefly appears, significantly playing the doctor who helps the insemination while a POV shot recalls the mechanics of sexual reproduction, playfully undermining distinctions between biological and social parenthood (and, perhaps, invokes the creation of the film, too). Close-ups dominate, inviting the spectator into a private moment of shared vulnerability. The tone shifts again subsequently, with melodramatic music and a contemplative overhead shot of Barcelona, suggesting a fleeting sense of calm before the domestic chaos resumes soon after, in Rome. This juxtaposition of farce and tenderness exemplifies the film’s refusal to separate comedy from melodrama, presenting queer parenthood as both ordinary and extraordinary.

Faith, Family, and Politics

A small part of the narrative of Mamma + mamma deals with Karole’s fraught relationship with Catholic authority. In flashbacks to her childhood in Molise we see her scolded by Don Antonio, a strict local priest, after she mimicked her brother, Nicola and another young boy by urinating standing up. Infuriated, Don Antonio accuses her of immodesty, chases the children and catches Nicola. Karole gives him a sharp kick and Nicola falls to the floor, gaining a bloodied nose. A pensive shot/reverse shot of the two children gazing at each other, which returns later in the film, seems to highlight her brother’s dismay, sowing seeds of estrangement that continue into adulthood. Soon after, when Don Antonio arrives at her home to rebuke her, her father defends her, sending the priest away – a moment that privileges familial solidarity over institutional authority.

As an adult, in her voyage back to Molise, Karole meets Don Antonio again. In the church’s confession booth, their conversation avoids direct confrontation: despite his provocations, rather than challenging his authority, she shares her sandwich and sidesteps his questions. This forgiving stance mirrors the couple’s earlier response to a homophobic stare earlier in the film, which they answer with a smile rather than indignation. These narrative choices might come across as a kind of avoidance and a limitation, since the film refrains from openly criticising the Church. In the same way, Mamma + mamma never directly criticises the Italian state, where artificial insemination is not even possible, arguably causing much of the suffering for the protagonists who must try abroad. Yet this choice to avoid explicit denunciation could also be read as a radical gesture. By refusing to stage overt political conflict, the film reorients attention towards the couple’s everyday life, their tenderness, and their perseverance. Politics are present, but through implication: viewers are invited to see the obstacles that law and custom create, while recognising that broader social change must be carried forward collectively, beyond the scope of two individuals. When the film closes with Karole, Ali – now pregnant – across a different bridge, in Rome and with all of their community (including Don Antonio), the film signals the coexistence of support and prejudice within the same community. Rather than resolve these tensions, Mamma + mamma embraces them, offering inclusion through empathy rather than confrontation.

Conversations

Press conference on October 22, 2018, featuring director Karole Di Tommaso, screenwriter Chiara Ridolfi, and cast members Linda Caridi, Maria Roveran, Andrea Tagliaferri, and Anna Bellato, during the Rome Film Fest.

Karole Di Tommaso and Linda Caridi discuss Mamma + mamma, the notion of family and the way to break down stereotypes regarding normal folks (VideoPN, February 11, 2019).

Interview with director Karole Di Tommaso created by the students of Fondazione ITS Roberto Rossellini, addressing the social core of the film and the genres used (March 19, 2019).

Strategies

Mamma + mamma is a co-production between Bibi Film TV (it is produced by Angelo Barbagallo and Maria Rita Barbera – his wife, and the film’s costume designer – as well as their daughter Matilde Barbagallo) and Rai Cinema. The specific motivations behind Rai Cinema’s investment in the film are not public. The film appears in several budgets, notably within the list of films co-produced as divided by theme, of the Rai Group’s “Social report” (bilancio sociale) within the section vaguely titled “minoranze” (minorities).

The film’s overall production budget was relatively low, at €898,699 according to Ministry of Culture data, reflecting the realities of small-scale, independent filmmaking. It was officially recognized as a work of cultural interest and received automatic production contributions from the Ministry of Culture, amounting to €58,503.87 (provided in 2023).

The film also benefited from selective distribution contributions in 2019, totaling €10,000. These contributions were intended to support films at risk of limited visibility or to promote the circulation of high-quality, independent, or niche works. Typically, such selective contributions cover between 30% and 50% of eligible distribution costs; for Mamma + mamma, this suggests that the production may have allocated roughly €20,000-€30,000 for promotional and distribution activities with partial support from the Ministry.

In addition, the project received substantial regional support. The Apulia Film Fund, utilizing resources from the POR Puglia 2014-2020 program and co-financed through the European Regional Development Fund (FESR), contributed €134,000. Support also came from the Regione Lazio Fondo Regionale per il Cinema e l’Audiovisivo, highlighting the layered structure of Italian audiovisual financing that combines national, regional, and EU funds.These public contributions are especially important for smaller productions, as they help mitigate financial risk and ensure that niche stories can be told. In the case of Mamma + mamma, such support was critical: the film addresses same-sex parenting, a theme that often occupies a marginal space in Italian cinema and would likely have struggled to find commercial backing. Public funding is also fundamental for first-time directors like Karole Di Tommaso. Overall, the film exemplifies how Italian public and regional funding strategies can actively influence the production of culturally significant, diverse narratives that might not fit mainstream commercial imperatives.

Communication rhetorics

The promotional campaign of Mamma + mamma, although relatively modest (given the film’s limited circulation and low budget), articulated a rhetoric of inclusion that combines the affective with the identity dimension. Homosexuality is not an accessory element but the narrative core of the film, and for this reason the communication explicitly foregrounds the idea of couplehood and parenthood as spaces to be opened to inclusion.

The posters show the protagonists with their heads close together, their profiles forming the outline of a heart: an immediate image that places their romantic relationship at the centre and affirms its legitimacy without the need for further explanation. Other promotional images emphasize the theme of motherhood, such as photographs depicting them with a stroller – direct symbols of their desire to become mothers and of the possibility of building a family out of their bond. These themes also recur in the trailer and in film clips available online, on video platforms, since its theatrical release.

These visual materials address a wide audience through a positive, inclusive language: not the “other” couple, but the “ordinary” couple, immersed in everyday gestures and in a familiar iconographic imaginary (embraces, smiles, warm colours). This strategy reduces distance, presenting the story as natural and shareable, while at the same time reinforcing the political value of visibility.The film’s title, Mamma + mamma, is itself a strong rhetorical formula: simple, repetitive, stripped of embellishments, it immediately conveys the proposed family structure and works as an inclusive claim. This becomes even more evident when contrasted with the film’s working title, La bambina sintetica (“The Synthetic Child”, though “child” is gendered in the feminine), which appeared colder and imbued with a sense of artificiality.

Circulation patterns

Mamma + mamma premièred on 22 October 2018 in the Panorama Italia section of Alice nella città, part of the Rome Film Festival. This section is dedicated to emerging directors and début works, offering visibility in a competitive national and international context – something vital for niche films like this. Just a few days later, the film screened in competition at the Festival du Film Italien de Villerupt in France, to which it returned the following year in the “Portrait” section, confirming a degree of resonance beyond Italy’s borders.

Beyond these, the film participated in 32 film festivals across the world (cf. the list below). A significant majority of these events were thematic collections of films dedicated to LGBTQ+ issues, signalling the sector of the market in which the film was able to move with greater ease. A few other festivals were dedicated to Italian cinema, as in the case of Villerupt and the 8 e 1/2 Festa Do Cinema Italiano in Porto.

The domestic theatrical release was scheduled for Valentine’s Day 2019 – a symbolic date chosen to underline the universality of romantic love. The Roman avant-première, held at Nuovo Cinema Aquila on 12 February, was introduced by Senator Monica Cirinnà, sponsor of the 2016 law on civil unions. Cirinnà underscored the cultural significance of this choice: “The fact that the largest cultural enterprise in this country is releasing the film on Valentine’s Day is a powerful warning: all loves are equal and worthy of celebration.”

Distribution was handled directly by BiBi Film, the film’s producer, with additional support credited to Altri Sguardi, although, despite its intriguing name, little documentation is available on this distributor. The film opened modestly, showing on just seven screens. Cinetel and Cinecittà Luce data record around 2,200 tickets sold for a total gross of €12,497. Box office traces are visible only during its initial release in February 2019 and again briefly in May.

According to Lumière data, Mamma + mamma also circulated internationally, though on a very limited scale. The French release accounted for around 330 admissions, while Belgium, Luxembourg and Switzerland each registered approximately 30 tickets per market: figures that suggest festival or special-event screenings rather than a sustained distribution. 

Beyond the theatrical circuit, the film entered television circulation: Rai Cinema press releases document broadcasts on Rai 5 on 7 June 2021 and again on 13 May 2024, albeit with an infelicitous error in the latter release mistakenly crediting Carlo Simoni as director. The film has not been released on home video, but it is available in streaming on RaiPlay in Italy. Internationally, it has been accessible on transactional video-on-demand platforms: Apple TV (Austria, Canada, the Czech Republic, Germany, Spain, USA), Amazon Prime Video (the UK and France, UK), and via subscription streaming on Filmicca (Brazil).

Taken together, these circulation patterns highlight the alignment between production and distribution: modest, resource-conscious strategies privileging symbolic dates, festival visibility, and niche streaming markets, consistent with the film’s independent profile and thematic focus on inclusion. The relatively wide availability on streaming platforms signals the potential of this market to make niche content available within, presumably, library deals. 

Festivals (selected):

• Artinvita Festival Internazionale degli Abruzzi | Sguardi Italiani | 2022
• Sguardi Italiani | Panorama | 2022
• Pulcinella Film Festival | Competition | 2020
• Festival del Cinema Europeo di Lecce | In Concorso Premio “Mario Verdone” | 2020
• Llamale | Largometraje  2020
• Vues d’En Face – Festival International du Film Gay et Lesbien de Grenoble | Competition Longs Métrages 2020
• Zinegoak GLT Film Festival Bilbao | Fik | 2020
• Des Images Aux Mots – Toulouse LGBT Festival | Longmetrages 2020
• Cheries Cheris – Festival du Films LGBT de Paris | Panorama Fictions    | 2019
• Cineffable: Paris Lesbian & Feminist Film Festival | Panorama | 2019
• Image+Nation | Eye on the World | 2019
• Pink Screens | Panorama | 2019
• Queer Film Festival Esslingen | Competition | 2019
• Festival du Film Italien de Villerupt | Portrait | 2019
• Festival Internacional de Cine Gay y Lesbico de Madrid | Largometrajes | 2019
• Kreives Vilnius Queer Festival | Features | 2019
• Out On Film: Atlanta’s Gay and Lesbian Film Festival | Narrative Feature | 2019
• North Carolina Gay and Lesbian Film Festival | Feature Film | 2019
• Festival Internacional de Cine en Guadalajara | Premio Maguet | 2019
• Freiburger Lesbenfilmtage | Spielfilm | 2019
• 8 e 1/2 Festa Do Cinema Italiano Competitiva | 2019
• MondoQ – Giornate di Cinema e Cultura Omosessuale | Panorama | 2019
• Alice nella Città | Panorama Italia | 2018
• Festival du Film Italien de Villerupt | Competition | 2018
• Festival Ecrans Mixtes | Inédit | 2018

Reception

The reception of Mamma + mamma was closely tied to its territorial and cultural contexts. Special screenings were organized in Puglia, which supported the film through regional funding, and in Molise, the director’s home region. These events framed the film as both a story of queer parenthood and as a representation of southern Italy that avoids reductive stereotypes about ordinary people and their sexuality. In this sense, the local circulation reinforced the director’s stated aim to merge questions of inclusivity with questions of identity and place.

Although its overall circulation was limited, the film accrued a notable series of festival recognitions and prizes. In particular, at the Pulcinella film festival in Acerra, Naples, the film won awards for best feature, best direction and best actress (Linda Caridi). The film was also recognised at the Social World Film Festival and the Bimbi Belli showcase, curated by Nanni Moretti (a director historically connected also to the producer of the film). 

Critical response, though limited by the film’s small distribution, was generally positive in institutional outlets. Reviews praised its thematic importance in the Italian context, highlighting the rarity of lesbian couples and queer parenting on screen. Critics underlined the film’s sincerity, courage, and honesty, noting its delicate tonal balance and successful blend of genres. The use of non-professional actors was frequently cited as a strength, lending authenticity alongside the well-received performances of the professional leads, Caridi and Roveran.

Audience reactions online were more mixed. On Letterboxd, the film holds an average of 3.2/5; on MyMovies, the average is 2.9, though this is lowered by a handful of critical reviews (including Roberto Nepoti in La Repubblica, who found the oneiric sequences excessive – see below). User scores were higher at 3.21. On IMDb, 221 ratings yield an average of 5.1, but with a striking discrepancy: Italian users rated it significantly higher (6.9) than American ones (5.0). This divergence likely reflects different viewing frameworks and expectations of LGBTQ+ cinema in the two contexts.The content of user reviews points to a general goodwill toward the film’s representational aims, with many respondents stressing the importance of seeing queer parenthood depicted on screen. At the same time, several noted weaknesses in narrative clarity and polarized reactions to certain characters, especially Andrea. In any case, the question of representation remains central to both critical and popular reception: even where aesthetic judgments diverge, Mamma + mamma is consistently read as a culturally significant gesture of inclusion.

Italian and foreign press

Italian Press 

ANONYMOUS, “Mamma + mamma, from Molise the film reopens the debate on children for gay couples: ‘Rights belong to everyone’”, Primonumero 25, February 12, 2019.

«A film that speaks to the audience’s hearts with delicacy, irony, freshness, and sincerity. The director “put herself out there,” bringing to the screen a personal story – her own, shared with her partner Alessia Arcolaci, and their desire, eventually fulfilled, to have a child. “I decided to tell this story because while it is personal, it also has a universal character.” Laying bare the details of one’s private life without disguise is an act of courage, one that can become necessary when leading a civil battle and sending a message. Karole’s message is that rights belong to everyone, and no distinctions can be made. The right at stake in this film is that of motherhood for a same-sex couple, a path made difficult by the fact that Italian law still does not fully recognize it».

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Roberto Nepoti, “What Confusion This Desire for Motherhood”, La Repubblica, February 14, 2019, quoted on the film’s (anonymously authored) description via Cinematografo.it.

«Debut director Karole Di Tommaso tells this simple, autobiographical story with settings that shift between Barcelona and Molise, where Karole visits her warm-hearted farming family. Without her grandfather’s help, the costs would have been unsustainable. Although the subject is serious, Mamma + mamma struggles to find the right register: at times it is dramatic (when the dream of motherhood seems unattainable), at others it slips into comedy (between organic remedies and transcendental meditation), and occasionally even into caricature (the tourists at the B&B the two women have turned their home into). This unevenness is further accentuated by dreamlike sequences that feel decidedly out of place».

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Eugenia Romanelli, “Mamma + mamma: A Timeless Story of Love and Motherhood”, Il fatto quotidiano (digital edition), February 22, 2019.

«An interesting creative and artistic choice was the inclusion of non-professional actors who are part of the real story: the director’s own mother, her neighbors, Andrea. “I wanted the actors to engage with people from real life, and vice versa,” Di Tommaso explained, “because that could generate an emotional glue, an element of unpredictability, and therefore a higher level of audience engagement with the performances”».

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Marco Paiano, “Mamma + mamma: Review of Karole di Tommaso’s film”, Cinematographe.it, October 26, 2018. 

«Mamma + mamma portrays, with honesty and a graceful touch, the reality around us: couples struggling to achieve economic stability, hindered further by prejudice, but also an underlying humanity and purity that, despite everything, continue to blossom and make this world a slightly less disheartening place. Karole Di Tommaso shows both courage and honesty in putting her whole self into what is essentially the cinematic transposition of her own experience – one that, fortunately, reached a happy conclusion with the birth of her child».

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Editorial Stuff, “Mamma + mamma”, Game Surf, February 14, 2019.

« Karole Di Tommaso chose to tell her story with tact and delicacy, avoiding embellishment or artifice, and bringing to the screen the simplicity and naturalness of two people in love who decide to have a child—even if, as viewers will see, the process is anything but simple. In an Italy where homophobia and discrimination are still, unfortunately, a daily reality, this film embodies the demand for visibility from the many LGBT people fighting for rights for themselves and their children. In short, it was a film that truly needed to be made».

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Foreign Press 

ANONYMOUS, “Mom + Mom (Mamma + mamma)”, MIB’s Instant Headache (blog), 13 December 2019.

«It is the earnestness of the cast, especially the bubbly Linda Caridi, that make it worth lasting the whole brisk 76-minute run, whilst Di Tommaso is no slouch as a director either. Vividly painting a breezy but conflicted portrait of modern Italy through well-shot visuals, including the ill-placed oneiric inserts, we find ourselves part of their world, but not so much through the script.

With such a vital and topical issue at hand, there is too much restraint in not tackling it head on that prevents it from making a difference. Italy doesn’t even allow gay marriage and their laws on adoption are inconsistent, permitting same sex couple to adopt their partner’s children or foster children, but recognising gay men as fathers to children sired by a surrogate with their own sperm has yet to be approved».

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