The Middle Room

Mietta is a retired judge living alone in an elegant Milan apartment. At seventy, she decides to temporarily host Ibu, a Senegalese friend, and his pregnant wife Bousso, recently arrived in Italy. But with the birth of little Khadim, what was meant to be a short stay turns into years of cohabitation.
While Ibu works long hours outside the house, Mietta and Bousso share the same space without truly knowing each other, one facing motherhood in a foreign country, the other confronting old age and the longing for emotional connection. The film follows them over several years, revealing tensions, silences, and small everyday conflicts that test a fragile domestic balance.
As Khadim grows up, caught between his parents' Senegalese roots and an Italian identity that feels increasingly his own, the house becomes a microcosm for broader questions: integration, invisible barriers, and the contradictions of Western society. Ibu and Bousso reflect on the distance from their homeland, while Mietta faces her growing need for companionship.
The Middle Room tells, with an intimate and deeply human gaze, the real possibility of building a family beyond blood ties, cultural and racial differences.