His Secret Life

Antonia, a doctor specialising in AIDS, loses her husband Massimo suddenly in an accident. Clearing the house she finds a painting called The Ignorant Fairy with a declaration of love written on the back. It was written not by a woman but by a man named Michele. She learns that her husband was bisexual and had kept a second life for years. She enters Michele's crowded, tangled circle in the Ostiense district of Rome and begins to turn into something else there. Ferzan Ozpetek directed. Margherita Buy plays Antonia and Stefano Accorsi plays Michele, with Serra Yilmaz and Gabriel Garko in the cast. The film went out on DVD in the United States as His Secret Life; the Italian title is The Ignorant Fairies. It won three Nastro d'Argento prizes, with Buy and Accorsi taking best actress and best actor. It was also honoured at the gay and lesbian film festivals in New York and Austin. It took roughly 6 million dollars at the Italian box office. Ozpetek adapted the same story as a series for Disney+ in 2022, called The Ignorant Angels. Who it is for: viewers who like the idea of chosen family, crowded tables and Ozpetek's Rome. Who it is not for: anyone expecting grief to be borne quietly. The film puts mourning inside a group, loud and constantly eating.