Maya Sansa

Acting

Maya Sansa

Born

1975-09-25 (51)

Place of birth

Rome, Italy

Known for

Acting

Credits

64 titles

Maya Sansa (born 25 September 1975) is an Italian actress. Maya Sansa was born in Rome the daughter of an Iranian father and an Italian mother. When she was 14, she started to study acting at her high school in Rome the "Virgilio". She then moved to London to study at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. There she graduated in acting and was soon picked by Marco Bellocchio to take part in his new film: La balia. Maya later worked with Bellocchio for a second time, starring in the film Goodmorning, Night. Sansa has also worked with Marco Tullio Giordana in the film The Best of Youth. On 2 May 2004 The New York Times published an article which named her as the new image of Italian cinema…

Known for

Film credits

2020s · 10 titles

Revoir Paris poster
7.1

Three months after surviving a terrorist attack in a bistro, Mia is still traumatized and unable to recall the events of that night. In an effort to move forward, she investigates her memories and retraces her steps.

Revoir Paris

2022

My Night poster
6.0

Marion faces Paris at night with a feeling of vulnerability linked to the loss of her sister. She crosses paths with Alex. Their encounter will evolve at the rhythm of their wanderings through the city, like a journey through the night.

My Night

2022

Security poster
5.5

After the assault of a young woman in their seaside town, a security expert and his family get caught in a powerful riptide of secrets and lies.

Security

2021

You Came Back poster
5.5

Marco and Anita discover they are expecting a child. Finally a ray of light in Marco’s life after his heartbreak following the loss of Leo, his first born with his former wife Clara. Suddenly, however Perla, the new owner where the couple lived until the tragic accident, bursts into Marco’s and his ex-wife’s lives. The mysterious woman claims she keeps feeling a strange presence and hearing the voice of a child that is tormenting her and her son. Marco therefore finds himself torn between the ties of the past and an unwritten future.

You Came Back

2020

My Paper Dolls poster
6.0

End of the 70s in the Treviso area. Two decisive moments in the lives of three teenagers of the Bottacin family: Primo, Anna and Tiberio. The passage from puberty to pre-adolescence experienced between first loves and rugby matches and that from the world of the countryside to the world of the city.

My Paper Dolls

2023

The Peacock’s Paradise poster
5.9

On a winter’s day, Nena gathers her family to celebrate her birthday. Il paradiso del pavone is a small journey into the intimacy and authenticity of human beings: a film about an extended family in which everyone talks but no one really listens. Until an unexpected event forces the family members to look into each other’s eyes and reveal themselves for what they really are.

The Peacock’s Paradise

2022

Carlo Mazzacurati: A Certain Idea of Cinema poster
NR

Explore the life and work of acclaimed Italian filmmaker Carlo Mazzacurati, who passed away in 2014. It delves into his distinctive poetic style, blending genres, and portraying rarely seen parts of Italy with empathy and dignity.

Carlo Mazzacurati: A Certain Idea of Cinema

2024

Azuro poster
4.9

It’s summer, the heat is overwhelming and the weather is out of whack. A group of friends are enjoying their yearly holiday in their favorite little village, wedged between the sea and the mountains. As usual, they are bored and eat and drink a lot. They do not pay attention to the fire which progresses on the mountain nearby, nor to the world around them. But this year, a mysterious man arrives from the sea and shakes up their seemingly balanced existence...

Azuro

2022

With the Grace of a God poster
5.0

Back in Genoa for the first time in twenty-five years, to attend the funeral of his best friend from when he was growing up, Luca reunites with the old gang of yore. All of them are sure that the late lamented had brought it on himself, with his dissipated lifestyle. Not Luca: he wants to know, investigate, understand. He searches his memory, in a city as changed as he is, as characters and situations reemerge ghost-like from a buried past, along with Luca’s own true nature, which he thought he had definitively tamed.

With the Grace of a God

2023

Amo la tempesta poster
4.0

A gang of fathers and abandoned parents go to extreme measures to fight italian youngsters emigration by performing a reverse illegal immigration, kidnapping and smuggling their children out of Germany.

Amo la tempesta

2020

2010s · 21 titles

The Truth poster
6.0

Fabienne is a star; a star of French cinema. She reigns amongst men who love and admire her. When she publishes her memoirs, her daughter Lumir returns from New York to Paris with her husband and young child. The reunion between mother and daughter will quickly turn to confrontation: truths will be told, accounts settled, loves and resentments confessed.

The Truth

2019

The Royal Exchange poster
6.2

After many years of confrontation, the treasures of Spain and France are empty. In 1721, the regent of France draws up an ambitious plan to inaugurate an era of peace and prosperity that will heal the economies of both nations: his intention is to build a solid network of marriage alliances that will involve four children of very different ages who know nothing of betrayals and power games…

The Royal Exchange

2017

Sisters in Arms poster
7.0

Kenza and Yaël are two young French women who go to Syria to fight alongside the Kurdish forces. There they meet Zara, a Yezidi survivor. Born in different cultures but deeply united, the women-fighters heal their past wounds and discover their present strength, especially the fear they inspire in their opponents. The three young women soon bound together and become true sisters-in-arms.

Sisters in Arms

2019

Cycling with Molière poster
6.5

Serge Tanneur is at the pinnacle of his acting career when he decides to turn his back on show business and become a hermit living off of France’s Atlantic coast. Three years later, Gauthier Valence, a beloved TV actor, shows up on the island to offer Serge a role in his directorial debut – a rendition of Molière’s classic play, “The Misanthrope”. Serge refuses at first, but then suggests that they rehearse the first scene and after five days he’ll decide if he wants to dothe play or not. What ensues is a battle of brawn and wits and peculiar encounters with a hotel maid who longs to be a pornstar and an Italian divorcée.

Cycling with Molière

2013

Dormant Beauty poster
6.3

A mosaic of several intertwined stories questioning the meaning of life, love and hope, set during the last six days in the life of Eluana Englaro, a young woman who spent 17 years in a vegetative state.

Dormant Beauty

2012

La verità sta in cielo poster
5.9

In 1983 an English journalist travels to Italy to investigate the mysterious disappearance of a young vatican girl.

La verità sta in cielo

2016

The First Man poster
6.5

Based on a novel that Albert Camus was working on when he died, we follow Jacques Comery as he travels back to Algeria in 1957, a place full of childhood memories. The country is split between those wanting to remain a part of France, and those demanding independence. Reminiscences of his mother, his stern grandmother and a young Arab boy come flooding back.

The First Man

2011

The Black Sheep poster
7.9

Nicola is a man who has spent much of his life in a mental institution, though not always as a patient. Nicola's mother suffered from mental illness, and when young Nicola grew old enough to understand some of her stranger behavior as well as the family's other dark secrets, a few of the adults around him preferred to suggest he was disturbed like his mother, and he was encouraged to visit an asylum not far from his home. As an adult, Nicola has spent enough time around people who have a tenuous connection with reality that he has a superficial resemblance to them, and has developed a strange set of imaginary friends to go along with his eccentric real-life companions and the woman he loves from afar, Marinella.

The Black Sheep

2010

Storie sospese poster
6.2

No synopsis available yet.

Storie sospese

2015

The App poster
3.0

Loving girlfriend, family fortune, breakout movie role: he's got it all. Until an app awakens a powerful new yearning. While in Rome to shoot his first movie, actor and industrial heir Niccolò becomes obsessed with the dating app "US" that sends him into a self-destructive spiral.

The App

2019

I ragazzi dello Zecchino d’Oro poster
7.0

We are in the mid-60s, when a very young Mariele Ventre gave birth to the very first formation of the Piccolo Coro, originally composed of only eight children. In a few years the Piccolo Coro becomes a real school of choral singing. In its 56 years of history, there have been hundreds of small voices that have brought the music of Zecchino d’Oro and its repertoire around Italy and the world.

I ragazzi dello Zecchino d’Oro

2019

The Lithium Conspiracy poster
3.7

In the 21th century getting hold of natural resources of emerging countries, is no matter of war--it is a matter of complex financial actions. And the power of governments behind the events has been replaced by the power of holding companies. Nowadays you don't conquer a country. You buy it. "Short story of long betrayals" is again set in the Republic of Queimada, where in the "Salar de Queimada" (a salt lake) lies 50% of lithium in the whole world. Not surprisingly, there is an international interest in its fate and a breathless fight to seize it.

The Lithium Conspiracy

2015

Un altro mondo poster
7.1

Andrea is a twentysomething from a rich but cold family who leads a superficial life devoid of responsibility. After receiving a letter from his dying father, whom he hasn't seen since he was a child, Andrea reluctantly joins him in Kenya to bid him farewell. Once there, he'll find himself with a rather singular inheritance: an 8-year-old half-brother that his father had from a local woman.

Un altro mondo

2010

Meeting with an Angel poster
4.4

Judith, a young nurse, is so meek in front of her husband Roland, that she can't manage to tell him that she has lost her job. When he learns this, he starts to follow her...He discovers that in a secret life, she is another mysterious and sublime person.

Meeting with an Angel

2011

See How They Dance poster
3.3

A French video artist traverses Canada on a train that takes her from the east to the west through the snow. This journey leads her to encounter the last girlfriend of her ex-husband, an internationally respected showman who is now dead. Each of the two women will try to understand how the "man of their life" loved and lived with the other. See how they dance.

See How They Dance

2011

Under the Starry Sky poster
6.7

The debut feature from Franco-Senegalese filmmaker Dyana Gaye charts the interconnected destinies of three far-flung sojourners across three continents. A quiet drama, about the anxieties of negotiating journeying to foreign countries and making a place for oneself in the world.

Under the Starry Sky

2014

Two Sunny Days poster
5.0

Peter and Martina are a tourist couple on a vacation on the Croatian coast. Both are successful and in their prime. However, the couple is going through a crisis. Both are frustrated and unsatisfied with their lives. They hope this vacation will help save their relationship. They both hope that this, long expected vacation will improve their relationship. They go on a mountain trip, and they get lost. Far from their usual comfort, confronted with the raw nature, they are left with no other option but to face one another...

Two Sunny Days

2010

No artwork available
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Looking for Monica

2016

The Good Life poster
5.8

Sylvain and Pierre have been running from the law ever since a custody battle with their mother pushed their father Yves into hiding ten years ago. But now that they’re older, the two brothers are road-weary and eager to take advantage of the perks of young adulthood. When the authorities discover their whereabouts, they are forced to move yet again and Pierre, the elder, disappears. Alone with his father on an island in the Loire River, Sylvain meets Gilda: his first girl, his first crush, and the first stop on his way to “the good life” – his own.

The Good Life

2014

The show MAS go on poster
NR

The artist Rä di Martino celebrates MAS, Rome's historic "people's warehouses," with a documentary that blurs the lines between reality and fiction.

The show MAS go on

2014

No artwork available
6.0

In this dark tale of an esoteric ritual, a woman enters a shadowy laboratory where three witches attend a bubbling cauldron, surrounded by hanging skeletons of dresses. She is disrobed, led to a bath, laid in the water and her finger pricked to draw blood. The witches circle, chanting in strange tongues. As the smoke clears, we see the woman has made the ultimate sacrifice, transforming herself into the object of her desire.

The Woman Dress

2012

2000s · 19 titles

Female Agents poster
6.6

May 1944, a group of French servicewomen and resistance fighters are enlisted into the British Special Operations Executive commando group under the command of Louise Desfontaines and her brother Pierre. Their mission, to rescue a British army geologist caught reconnoitering the beaches at Normandy.

Female Agents

2008

The Best of Youth poster
8.0

After a fateful encounter in the summer of 1966, the lifepaths of two brothers from a middle-class Roman family diverge, intersecting with some of the most significant events of postwar Italian history in the following decades.

The Best of Youth

2003

Good Morning, Night poster
7.0

The 1978 kidnapping and murder of Aldo Moro, president of the most important political party in Italy at the time, Democrazia Cristiana, as seen from the perspective of one of his assailants -- a conflicted young woman in the ranks of the Red Brigade.

Good Morning, Night

2003

An Italian Romance poster
5.5

Giovanni, a married man with a child, meets on a train Maria, a former lover.

An Italian Romance

2004

The Man Who Will Come poster
7.4

A group of Italian villagers struggle to survive during a tumultuous time in 1943, debating how much assistance to give the partisans with the impending arrival of the Germans. Based on True Events.

The Man Who Will Come

2009

The Listening poster
6.5

Estranged by the degree of corporate influence within the largest U.S. listening station in the world, an aging NSA officer defects and mounts a clandestine counter-listening station high in the Italian alps.

The Listening

2006

Nella terra di nessuno poster
9.0

No synopsis available yet.

Nella terra di nessuno

2000

Villa Amalia poster
5.7

Ann leaves Thomas and everything else behind when she catches him kissing another woman. With her music and help from Georges, she begins a journey to find herself.

Villa Amalia

2009

The Third Part of the World poster
3.2

Emma meets François at an airport in France. He is an astronomer who studies the phenomenon of black holes, and Emma finds herself immediately taken with him. Their romance flourishes during a stay in the countryside. But one day, François disappears on a bicycle ride. Left alone in a big house, Emma becomes afraid and returns to Paris to continue her life as a real estate agent. Soon after, François' brother Michel contacts her and together they try to solve the mystery of François' disappearance. But when he encounters Emma, Michel begins to transform into a ghost. Emma slowly begins to realize she possesses a frightening power that she was not aware of.

The Third Part of the World

2008

All Human Rights for All poster
NR

Collective film for the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, with 30 directors each helming a segment about one of the 30 articles of the Declaration.

All Human Rights for All

2008

Il prossimo tuo poster
NR

Rome, Paris and Helsinki right after the Madrid bombings. Three stories about people who, for different reasons, are afraid of others – the eponymous "thy neighbor." A humanity full of differences, but at the same time, with very similar feelings. So similar that their stories appear almost parallel and complementary.

Il prossimo tuo

2009

La vita degli altri poster
9.0

Luisa, a young volcanologist, is sent to a villa to install the technical instruments to survey Mount Vesuvius. Here she meets Mariano, a member of the camorra, that has just discovered that he has been betrayed he decided to break off completely from those he considered his friends. Luisa and Mariano have nothing in common except for a deep sense of the failure they are experiencing and which attracts them to each other. Between the young woman, exploited and disillusioned by an ambitious colleague, and the mature ex-criminal, the spark of friendship is kindled.

La vita degli altri

2002

No artwork available
NR

A short film.

A Thread of Passion

2000

Contronatura poster
4.7

"Contronatura" could be described a bit too simply as a romance between a rural woodsman and a suburban pharmacist's wife playing out the struggle between civilization and nature.

Contronatura

2005

La voce naturale - Giving Voice poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

La voce naturale - Giving Voice

2009

Lupo mannaro poster
6.0

Police chief Romeo becomes convinced that affluent professional Velasco is a serial killer known for mauling his victims with his teeth, but nobody believes him. The investigation slowly turns into a personal challenge between obsessive Romeo and stone-faced Velasco, an individual above suspicion — he murders people not because he has to, but simply because he can.

Lupo mannaro

2000

Gasoline poster
4.8

Fiery, dark-haired Stella, an intense auto mechanic, and nervous, blonde Eleonora are young and in love. They operate a gas station peacefully, until Eleonora's mother appears and voices her disapproval of their romance.

Gasoline

2002

Fuori dalle corde poster
5.0

Michele "Mike" Lo Russo is a young Italian boxer who has moved to Hamburg to start a professional boxing career. When his German manager refuses to renew his contract, he returns to Trieste, where his older sister Anna lives. Orphaned at an early age, Anna has dedicated her life to her brother's success. His triumph in boxing seems to be the only way to a better life, both for him and for herself. Once again, Anna helps Mike by begging his old coach to train him again. But the hoped-for boxing matches fail to materialize and Mike becomes increasingly impatient. Bargni, a manager whom Mike met in Germany, persuades him to get involved in the illegal fight club business. After Mike hesitates at first, he finally accepts the tempting offer and enters a world without rules.

Fuori dalle corde

2007

Il vestito da sposa poster
5.1

A young woman is raped the day she goes to the dressmaker's to try on her wedding dress.

Il vestito da sposa

2004

Series credits

In Treatment poster
7.6

No synopsis available yet.

In Treatment

2013

Irma Vep poster
6.5

Mira is an American movie star disillusioned by her career and a recent breakup, who comes to France to star as “Irma Vep” in a remake of the French silent film classic, “Les Vampires.” Set against the backdrop of a lurid crime thriller, Mira struggles as the distinctions between herself and the character she plays begin to blur and merge.

Irma Vep

2022

Collateral poster
6.4

When a pizza delivery driver is shot dead in south London, a tenacious detective goes after the people traffickers behind his murder and unravels a conspiracy that goes to the top.

Collateral

2018

The Iris Affair poster
6.4

A rootless genius, Iris Nixon, steals an enigmatic code from a charming philanthropist and disappears. A tense countdown ensues as she races to unravel the code's mystery.

The Iris Affair

2025

In Utero poster
9.0

Follow the lives of Ruggero, the gynecologist who founded a fertility clinic, and Angelo, a young trans man and talented embryologist.

In Utero

2026

Tutto può succedere poster
7.9

No synopsis available yet.

Tutto può succedere

2015

The Firebrands poster
7.0

Lulu, Chiara and Joe are on the verge of adulthood and dream of a world of freedom and equality. With the hippie wave everywhere, they see how their conservative village is lost among drugs, seeing the damage of excess and addiction.

The Firebrands

2023

Redemption poster
6.4

In a nocturnal and hostile Rome, Valerio must investigate the death of his son, an apparently suicide. An investigation that's also a last chance to restore a bond with that son he hadn't seen in years, facing the ghosts of the past.

Redemption

2020

The Best of Youth poster
8.0

A family saga set in Italy which chronicles the life of a middle-class family. It explores the relationship between two brothers Nicola and Matteo as their life paths separate during youth, encompassing major political and social events in post–World War II Italian history.

The Best of Youth

2003

A Dangerous Friendship poster
8.3

A lively duchess befriends the shy queen of France. The duchess aims to reunite the queen with the aloof king by injecting merriment into the staid royal atmosphere, causing controversy at court.

A Dangerous Friendship

2024

Einstein poster
4.0

A look at the relationship between renowned scientist Albert Einstein and his first wife, Mileva Maric.

Einstein

2008

Sei donne - Il mistero di Leila poster
7.6

Commissioner Laura Moretti investigates the disappearance of a young girl but the investigation reveals a reality in which everyone has secrets to protect. Original location, a not particularly attractive, modern, cold, flat Taranto

Sei donne - Il mistero di Leila

2023

David Copperfield poster
5.0

A young man journeys from a difficult childhood to maturity, exploring social injustice, personal development, and the complexities of human relationships.

David Copperfield

2009