MONICA Discovery

Screening to be followed by a conversation with director Andrea Pallaoro, producer Christina Dow and actors Trace Lysette and Patricia Clarkson.

Trace Lysette (TRANSPARENT) stars as the titular Monica, a self-reliant masseuse who has been estranged from her family since she was a teenager. She returns home upon learning that her mother, Eugenia (Patricia Clarkson), is ill and fast approaching death. At first apprehensive of bonding with her aloof family members, Monica starts to rekindle the warmth of these relationships while enduring quiet condescension from her mother, who initially fails to recognize her. After years of implicit tension, betrayal and pain, Monica and Eugenia are finally able to confront their resentments, albeit in silence. Lysette is beguiling as Monica in a breakout performance sprinkled with bursts of emotion and a stoic sense of contemplation. Director Andrea Pallaoro’s follow-up to HANNAH (AFI FEST 2017) is a graceful, sensitive portrait of evolution and healing in a divided family. –Julia Kipnis