The painterly clouds of a Tuscan sky hover above Maremma’s rolling landscape. On a rock sits a handbag. A white Miu Miu Wander bag. Upon close inspection, though, we see it’s dirty, beaten up, weathered with time. What has this handbag been through? And how did it end up here, alone?
7
Vincent, a young Parisian uncomfortable with his appearance, installs a brain chip named Reality+ which allows users to see themselves and fellow users with their dream body. However, Reality+ only works over 12-hour intervals, proving infuriating for Vincent as he falls for Stella, another user.
Adriano owns a high-end architecture studio that is transforming Lisbon’s neglected neighborhoods into luxury living spaces. But when a team-building event goes wrong, he’s forced into an unexpected confrontation with the very community his projects are displacing.
Fran has returned to his hometown in the Pyrenees, where his mother, sister, and many ghosts from his past live. Fran tries to immerse himself in the world he left to become a dancer, but nothing goes as planned. So he starts dancing, leading him and the whole village to a joyfully chaotic climax.
In the underworld, demons do not sleep. The moon keeps them awake. Most avoid the harsh moonlight and catch what little rest they can. One demon decides to skate through the underworld to reach the moon. This demon will eat the moon and free itself.
In an Italian town, a young woman attends confession. She reveals to the priest various fantasies involving greed, lust, and temptation. The priest undergoes a crisis of faith after her confession ignites desires he can’t ignore, sharing in her sin through a forbidden act.
Lucrecia—a museum security guard—struggles with inflation in a country descending into economic chaos. One night, she bets her severance pay on a speculative move inspired by an improvised pendulum. Before she knows it, her life spirals into a frenzied combination of sex, money, and temporary jobs.
In a diner in the desert, a mole with a hot ass and a fly waitress serve insect and animal patrons who are all going through relationship issues—be it an unhappy marriage, a secret crush, or a workplace fantasy. During today’s lunch service, everyone’s secrets and desires will come to a head.
The nuns living in a convent are happily melted together. When one nun digs a man up from the ground in the garden, she loses her grip on everyday life. Can secrets and harmony coexist?
A woman moves into a new house. As she explores this empty and eerie space, she encounters a mysterious entity—a Black Box. When she peers through its peephole, the woman unlocks access to multiple universes, each viewed from the perspective of a different woman.
Poet, musician, visual artist, and Afrofuturist Moor Mother roams a hallucinatory Mojave Desert alone. Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, Moor Mother visits the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra HQ and plays with jazz luminaries and elders, including Henry “The Skipper” Franklin, Michael Session, and Maia.
A small town in Argentina, Trenque Lauquen, invites an Italian fashion house to show its latest collection. After an elaborate welcome ceremony and an initial photo shoot, the fashion house’s model vanishes, and a team of local police and consultants, including a clairvoyant, investigates.
Dunnocks practice polyandry, where one female has multiple partners. Isabella Rossellini uncovers how the mamma dunnock manages her roster of fathers.
On trial for eating her tenth baby, Isabella Rossellini pleads that if she were a hamster, this would be considered natural. Rossellini takes a close look at the infanticidal maternal instincts of the hamster.
Being an orphaned oil beetle larva isn’t so tragic. Isabella Rossellini explains that the larvae simply must trick male bees into thinking they are sexy female bees.
Being a mamma requires sacrifice, especially for the Diaea ergandros. Isabella Rossellini explores how the spider lets herself be devoured by her babies.
Isabella Rossellini examines the maternal instincts of the piping plover. The piping plover mamma is an amazing actress, who pretends to be injured to save her children.
Isabella Rossellini reflects on how all mothers cannot help being maternal. She touches on the various maternal instincts—some heart-warming, some disturbing—of the animals she explores throughout Mammas.
Isabella Rossellini examines the maternal instincts of the wasp. Wasp mammas provide nourishment to their babies by paralyzing caterpillars and burying them alive with their wasp eggs.
Isabella Rossellini demonstrates the maternal instincts of cichlid fish. The mammas store their eggs in their mouths, so that’s where cichlid fathers have to fertilize them!
Dressed as a toad, the Pipa pipa, Isabella Rossellini is seduced by a male toad. Now a toad mamma, she won’t carry one big baby in her belly, but many babies on her back.
