Simple Women

Synopsis

Federica, a clumsy and graceless Italian director, had her first epileptic seizure on Christmas Day 1989, while watching the execution of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife Elena Ceausescu on television. Since childhood, her only passion was cinema, and one film in particular played an important role: Hal Hartley's Simple Men (1992), in which Romanian actress Elina Löwensohn has an onscreen seizure. For Federica, it was a critical moment of reflection and connection. Years later, Federica has the opportunity to make a film in Bucharest about the life of her long-time icon. But the real Elina Löwensohn is much different from the one in Federica's imagination and, very quickly, the true characters of both the actor and the director are revealed. Seeing through a new lens, Federica's mind becomes clouded and her ideas for the film less clear. Mid-production, she has a fit of epilepsy, and, with her vision blurred, the faint lines between life and art fade entirely.