Q&A with director Amandine Gay and editor, sound engineer, and producer Enrico Bartolucci in person

Filmmaker and activist Amandine Gay was listed under ‘X’ as a child in France, abandoned by her mother to grow up in a white family. ‘A Story of One’s Own’ pass the mic to five people who, like herself, carry in themselves the experience of being adopted. Separated not only from their unknown biological parents and countries of birth but also from the story about themselves. However, some of the blank pages are filled in by Gay’s both emotional and reflective film, where the five protagonists step forward and introduce us to the otherwise overlooked nuances in the discussion of international adoption – and the experience of knowing it from the inside. Love, doubt, anger and forgiveness. Strong feelings, which the five people we meet nonetheless experience in their own way, while they with an at times almost incomprehensible openness share their own stories with us. Their honesty and choice of words are what makes ‘A Story of One’s Own’ a film that invites us to empathise and understand them across our differences, no matter who we are – and how well we know our own story.