Michela Giraud: the directorial debut and the love for complexity

The social network audience got to know Michela Giraud through LOL - Chi ride è fuori in 2021. By that point, however, the Roman woman already had years of experience in television and on stages across Italy as a comedian and presenter. In 2015, she joined the cast of Colorado, in the following years appearing on television shows including La TV delle ragazze, Sbandati, and Comedy Central News. In between, there was radio and stand-up comedy. Now, after an immersion into the world of acting on the big screen, she makes her directorial debut with a very personal story. It's not new for her, as she has made her character a mirror of herself, never shying away from expressing intimate feelings, even about her relationship with her body, the outside world, and her identity as a woman who doesn't adhere to traditional standards.

Michela Giraud: Flaminia and the directorial debut

Flaminia hits theaters on April 11th. It's a double challenge: there's the technical aspect - after all, it's a debut in directing and screenwriting - and also the personal one. The film tells the story of two stepsisters, Flaminia and Ludovica, who couldn't be more different. The former is a typical girl from well-off North Rome about to marry Alberto, the son of an important diplomat. Ludovica, on the other hand, is a thirty-year-old on the autism spectrum, a hurricane that will shake up her stepsister's life with the force of a thousand earthquakes, and will forever change its course. Michela Giraud really has a sister on the autism spectrum. Her name is Cristina, she's 38 years old, and she inspired this story, which, according to the director, is "more authentic than true."

An authentic story, just like her

On Stories, on Sky Tg24, Giraud expressed her hopes for this film: "I would like people to find themselves within all those emotions of love, discomfort, loneliness, and all that carnality in the relationship between Flaminia and Ludovica." It's a story that doesn't shy away from eliciting emotions, even negative ones, and is almost of public service, by her own admission. In fact, she stated to Vanity Fair: "I knew I had to make the movie, for myself and for people who live in a family condition like mine. It's necessary to put popularity at the service of meaningful messages." Taking into account all the criticisms, questions, and speculations that come with it. Just like she did in her comedy career, talking about herself and putting her innermost feelings on the line, but this time, in a deeper way. Because now, in the public arena, there's also her family, which she's determined to protect with all her might, not only through interviews but also through her battle against labels, in general.

Michela Giraud and body positivity: a complex issue

The comedian, actress, and director, in fact, doesn't forget her roots. Her humor ranging from serious to facetious, her struggle as a woman in a male-dominated environment, that of stand-up comedy. Among her favorite themes are those of the body, femininity, body positivity, of which she doesn't like the more superficial aspects, the ones that flatten the issue. "It's not that I have something against body positivity because it's also right that people find themselves within a movement," she explains, again to Sky Tg24's microphones. "We talk about delicate issues and we also have to tell the truth, which is that there's no always feeling good just as there's also no one who's always happy." And in this complexity of feelings, which is sacred and must be preserved, sit Michela Giraud and her family, now also at the movies.