My mother Nancy

Episode of Series “Family foibles”.
Part of the “Family foibles” series of documentaries about five Australian families. Having had a traditional Italian Catholic immigrant upbringing in Sydney, marrying when her parents wanted her to and raising a family of three (including her daughter, Veronica, the director of this documentary), Nancy decides to break away from the traditional expectations of her marriage and, without consulting her husband, opens a cafe with a friend. Three years later, at age fifty, she is estranged from her sisters, who criticise her bid for independence and from her husband, who refuses to set foot in the cafe. While she still lives with, and cooks for her husband, they no longer talk to each other. Through a sensitive but persistent investigation of her mum’s predicament, Veronica unveils the guilt, anxiety, grief and regret, which pervade Nancy’s soul as she presses ahead with her business ambitions. She also unravels the tangle of generational, cultural and religious attitudes in which her diminutive but spirited mother is caught. A study guide is available from http://www.roninfilms.com.au/related/2365104851-0.pdf