Huggins consistently fails to deliver his lines properly and the fraught nature of the shoot is exacerbated by unhelpful advice from Margherita to her actors.

Her brother Giovanni has taken time off work to help care for their ailing mother, Ada, a retired classics teacher who has been hospitalised.

The website's critical consensus states: "Mia Madre explores thought-provoking themes with director/co-writer Nanni Moretti's reliably skillful blend of comedy and pathos".

[5] Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 70 out of 100, based on 25 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

[6] Les Cahiers du cinéma placed the film 1st in their 2015 Top Ten chart[7] and featured Nanni Moretti on their November's cover.