| Director: | Ivano De Matteo |
| Screenplay: | Ivano De Matteo Valentina Ferlan |
| Starring: | Edoardo Leo |
| Music: | Francesco Cerasi |
| Cinematography: | Giuseppe Maio |
| Editing: | Giuliana Sarli |
| Language: | Italian |
Mia is a 2023 Italian drama film co-written and directed by Ivano De Matteo and starring Edoardo Leo.
Rome, Ostiense district. Sergio, an ambulance driver, and Valeria are a close-knit couple with an only teenage daughter, Mia. Twenty-year-old Marco suddenly enters their simple and happy life and insistently courts Mia. Marco gradually reveals himself to be a manipulator, who turns the fifteen-year-old's life upside down by controlling her cell phone, distancing her from sport, from school, from her friends, until it becomes a real nightmare. On the pretext of her birthday, Marco forces Mia to skip a party with her school friends and spend the evening alone with him in her parents' house by the sea. Here, convincing her to drink and overcoming her resistance, he rapes her, then abandons her at a service station where she asks her parents, who by now had turned to the police distressed by her prolonged absence, to be taken home. The girl, helped by her determined and caring father, manages to end the highly toxic and violent relationship in which she ended up and starts living her life again, avoiding responding to Marco's messages and phone calls but the boy, who does not accept that he has been left, he decides to destroy Mia by spreading the photos of her naked on social media the night they were together. Devastated and humiliated, Mia takes an extreme step out of desperation; while she struggles between life and death, her father, destroyed by pain, only has one thing left: revenge.
The film was produced by produced by Lotus in collaboration with RAI Cinema. It was shot in Rome between January and February 2022.[1]
The film premiered at the 14th Bari International Film Festival.[2] [3] [4] It was released on Italian cinemas by 01 Distribution on 6 April 2023.[5]
The film was awarded two Globo d'oro Awards for best screenplay and best actor (Leo), and won the Ciak d'Oro for best drama film.[6] [7] It was also nominated for three Silver Ribbons, for best original story, best actor (Leo) and best supporting actress (Milena Mancini).[8]