* Maria Montessori at Zurich Film Festival 2023 *

In October's and December's Gimme a Beat, I reviewed the 19th edition of Zurich Film Festival.

I have been exploring the female factor of the Zurich Film Festival for several years now. But this year, I had a chance to get together with so many female filmmakers and actresses that I decided to breakdown my review of the ZFF into several shows.

While I've seen 30+ movies during the festival, I haven't reviewed all of them. But the ones that I did, you can find if you follow the search with the following hashtags: #zff #zff2023 #highlight #gimmeabeat.

In tonight's Gimme A Beat, I will be focusing on Maria Montessori / La Nouvelle Femmes, a feature debut directed and co-written by Lea Todorov about Maria Montessori.

I knew a story about Maria Montessori, an Italian physician, educator, and innovator, best known for her revolutionary Montessori method. But I never knew Maria’s private story and Maria as a woman, mother, and lover. Lea Todorov tells us this story.   Maria Montessori / La Nouvelle Femmes is a movie not just about one woman ahead of her time, but women’s emancipation and empowerment, at times connected or even depending on difficult choices. This movie also reminds us that many of the issues women faced almost a century ago still exist in today’s society, and that solving those even today needs the power of women working together to change it. You can find the review of the movie here.   A few days after I saw the movie, I had an opportunity to get together with Lea as well as with Jasmine Trinca, who was outstanding in the leading role as Maria Montessori. With Lea, I talked about why it was important for her to tell us Maria Montessori’s story, moving from documentary to feature filmmaker and about her personal experiences as a daughter and mother. With Jasmine, I talked about why she accepted the role of Maria, her work with Leila Bekhti (who portrayed Lili d'Alengy, a fictional character) and how she became the actress she is today.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tune in to Gimme A Beat (15.04.2024) tonight to hear interviews with Lea and Jasmine as well as cherry-picked music sung by femal