"Nona and her daughters", a powerful feminist tale by Valérie Donzelli

• Arte broadcasts this Thursday at 8:55 pm the first series signed by Valérie Donzelli,

  Nona and her daughters

  .

• This miniseries features Miou-Miou in the role of a septuagenarian feminist who learns that she is pregnant.

  A pregnancy which is the opportunity for her three daughters to move in temporarily with their mother.

• A surreal, funny and tender tale about motherhood and sisterhood.

Those who know his work know that anything can happen in his universe. In

, broadcast this Thursday at 8:55 p.m. on Arte and available on Arte.tv, Valérie Donzelli stars Miou-Miou in the role of Nona, a septuagenarian feminist living her life at full blast in the heart of Goutte d ' Now in Paris between the family planning that she manages and her lover André (Michel Vuillermoz). As she prepares to celebrate the 44th birthday of her triplets Gabrielle (Clotilde Hesme), Emmanuelle (Virginie Ledoyen) and George (Valérie Donzelli), she incredulously learns that she is pregnant at 70! The starting point of a feminist tale as surrealist as it is funny, tender and touching on motherhood and the fight of women for the right to dispose of their bodies.

"I wanted to tell about the relationship between a mother and her daughters, with the idea that the girls would come back to live with their mother," explains Valérie Donzelli, co-creator and director of the series, whom

met at the Séries Mania festival.

The idea of ​​pregnancy was crazy, and at the same time, it could be funny.

This questions the issue of motherhood as a superpower and a "superpoison".

"

And to explain his appetite for a little crazy situations: "I like having fun, being a little offbeat and taking a side step towards the burlesque because that puts a veil of modesty on what we say. .

"Valérie masters very well this mixture of reality and fiction", abounds Virginie Ledoyen.

An "actress who embodies this feminist freedom" of the 1970s

The heroine of Les

is impeccable and credible in this role of this feminist matriarch who becomes pregnant at 70 when she has no desire for a child. "And that her lover is not the progenitor while she has never cheated on him", specifies the actress. "Miou-Miou through her filmography is an actress who embodies this feminist freedom and the activism of this time", continues Valérie Donzelli, who was looking for her Nona, "an actress known to all the French, an icon" but whose "the celebrity disappears behind the roles. "

Discovering their mother's pregnancy, Gabi, Manu and George, Nona's daughters, worried about her health, will move back to their mother's apartment, "a place where we want to live, a place warm, a refuge, it's a bit like Nona's belly, the place where she has always lived, ”recounts the director.

An intrusion that Nona will have a hard time living with.

“She doesn't want to be under constant surveillance.

All this stifles her in relation to her freedom and everything she has always advocated, ”Miou-Miou analyzes.

A series that tells about "the relationship between women"

"Each of the girls is a bit of Nona, and at the same time, they've built themselves up a bit in opposition to her," notes Valérie Donzelli.

Gabi has become a renowned sex therapist: “Gabrielle is the rebel, who left home very early, in conflict with her mother.

It is perhaps the one which resembles him the most in its angry side, a little soup au lait, ”continues the director.

Manu has a tidy life.

“She entered into a pattern.

She is very happy, married, with her five children, summarizes Virginie Ledoyen.

This pregnancy will be a way for her to go to her mother.

"

George is still working on his thesis at 44 years old.

"George would have liked to have all the attention, she's the one who wants to remain her mother's little girl, the one who never leaves", comments Valérie Donzelli.

Nona's daughters show a great sorority, an "important" theme for the director: "I was marked by 

, by

, by films which tell the story of the relationship between women, a relationship of solidarity, listening, kindness, generosity. I am very surrounded by women, I wanted to say that it existed. "" Great friendships are not just for men, we are not just great narcissistic rivals who constantly shoot each other out! », Adds Virginie Ledoyen.

This sorority is also noticeable behind the scenes.

Valérie Donzelli does not fail to quote her co-scriptwriter, Clémence Madeleine-Perdrillat.

Virginie Ledoyen confides: "Valérie could ask me anything, what she does not do ... She is a filmmaker, an actress and a woman whom I adore" while Miou-Miou salutes the "enormous freedom" of the director.

A series which is not for all that "an anti-guys pamphlet"

However, men are not left out in

.

The spirited Michel Vuillermoz forms an endearing couple on screen with Miou-Miou.

“I found it beautiful to say that a man can be vulnerable when he is in love.

Life doesn't end at 40 or 50.

I also found it beautiful to tell a sincere love story of a 70-year-old woman, ”emphasizes Valérie Donzelli.

German actor Barnaby Metschurat plays a very enlightened male midwife.

Her character, “Paou represents a somewhat modern, contemporary form of virility,” according to the designer.

Christopher Thompson plays Emmanuel, Manu's husband, "who takes her on vacation when she is tired," laughs Virginie Ledoyen.

The series is not "an anti-guys pamphlet, hey she.

We are not in a trial where the sorority is only the expression of the anger that we have towards men.

And that's what it works for.

"

On the other hand, under its false air of a joyously messy fable,

is a powerful hymn to the freedom of women and the right to dispose of their bodies.

“The fighting of the 1970s continues.

We are fighting for the same things.

Abortion is questioned in quite a few countries.

Equal pay is not always the case.

The issue of violence against women, we will not even dwell on it, ”concludes Valérie Donzelli.

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"Nona and her daughters": "I play a 70-year-old woman who becomes pregnant", laughs Miou-Miou

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