FRANCE

Toni, en famille

2023 – DCP – color – 96’

Direction: Nathan Ambrosioni

Screenplay: Nathan Ambrosioni

Cinematography: Raphaël Vandenbussche

Editing: Nathan Ambrosioni

Set design: Rozenn Le Gloahec

Sound: Laurent Benhaïm, Alexandre Hecker, Mélissa Petijean

Costumes: Claire Tong

Cast: Camille Cottin (Toni), Léa Lopez (Mathilde), Thomas Gioria (Marcus), Louise Labeque (Camille), Oscar Pauleau (Timothée), Julianne Lepoureau (Olivia), Catherine Mouchet (Toni’s mother), Guillaume Gouix (doctor), Florence Muller (Sophie), Saadia Bentaieb (mrs Audemard), Benoit Giros (university dean), Caroline Espargilière (guidance counsellor)

Producers: Nicolas Dumont, Hugo Selignac

Production: in coproduction with Chi-Fou-Mi Productions, Studiocanal, France 2 Cinema  

Italian distribution: Wanted Cinema

synopsis

Antonia, called Toni, 43, is raising her five children alone while working a full-time job. She also sings in bars at night to supplement her income, reminiscent of a career in music she once dreamed of. Toni is talented and even once recorded a single that was a hit. But that was 20 years ago. Now, as her two older children are about to go off to college, Toni wonders what she is going to do when everyone has left home. Will she still have time to rebuild her life?

the director: Nathan Ambrosioni

Nathan Ambrosioni was born in Grasse, in the South of France, in 1999. He took his first steps in filmmaking by shooting two horror films during school vacations, which were later selected for festivals around the world. In 2016 he changed genres and wrote and filmed First Breath, with Zoe Adjani, selected for the Calgary and San Francisco Film Festivals. He subsequently shot other short films and a medium length film Three Days In September. In 2018 he made his debut feature: Paper Flags, with Noémie Merlant and Guillaume Gouix, thanks to the support of the French National Film Center (CNC). The film was in competition in Lecce and awarded at other international festivals. After scripting two films with Audrey Diwan, he directed Toni, his second feature film in 2022.

director’s statement

“I wanted to investigate mid-life. That very special moment when you call everything into question. In this case, the status of an unwed mother and homemaker (Toni spends most of her time at home) constitutes a fundamental social condition. We imagine that Toni owes absolute devotion to her children, that she constructs everything based on them. Toni runs counter to that image, it imagines things otherwise. Toni interests me because her social status makes her a real heroine and a heroine in the real world. She quite simply realizes that being a mother is fabulous, but it is also a condition marked for programed obsolescence, the day your last child leaves home. That is not enough for Toni and her age, 43, makes her situation urgent. In her own way, Toni is like the teenagers who, when graduating high school, have to choose a professional career, a way of life. She is prey to the same interrogations, but she realizes that society, the outside world, will not encourage her on the path she chooses because of her age. Which makes her self questioning all the more awkward.”

filmografia

2015 Au bord du lac (The Lake, short)

2015 Avec toi (short)

2016 Ce qui nous reste (First Breath, short)

2016 Joe (short)

2017 Le vent dans vos cheveux (The wind in your hair, short)

2017 Trois jours en septembre (Three days in september, medium)

2018 Les drapeaux de papier (Paper Flags)

2023 Toni en famille (Toni)

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