Twin stars

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Twin stars (Stella gemella)

Twin stars (Stella gemella)

original title:

Stella gemella

directed by:

cinematography:

set design:

costume design:

world sales:

country:

Italy

year:

2025

film run:

109'

format:

colour

status:

Ready (19/09/2025)

festivals & awards:

Stella and Achille have been a couple for fifteen years, but maybe they rushed things on the way to a placid provincial existence: now they have a child, a farm, and a mortgage to pay.
Despite a 5 a.m. wake-up every day, Stella is still starry-eyed. But she’s more and more alienated by Achille’s superficial behaviour. She decides to take a break and visit a childhood friend in Rome, where anything seems possible. Here she meets Gil, a Black chef with a winning smile. They wind up in bed. What happens next is very rare: a hetero-parental superfecundation. That is, a fetus with two fathers.

DIRECTOR'S NOTES:
When comedy succeeds in capturing contemporary issues, it becomes the most powerful genre for reaching people. What fascinated me about Stella gemella is its potential for offering a genuine look into our times. Stella and Achille are coming to terms with the roles that society and their parents have imposed on them, and perhaps they themselves have, as well. In the end, they learn that there exist different ways to define family and happiness. The film is a provocation that reconciles two worlds that in Italy seem to have nothing to say to each other. In the ongoing war between the sexes, women as well as men come out losers, each in search of new solutions that society hasn’t yet come up with for them.