Asking another woman to bear your child is the last chance when you are unable to do it by yourselves. In some countries it's permitted by law, in others it's forbidden. Surrogacy Underground tells the journey of couples across borders, the experience of surrogate mothers, the children's perspective. From the United Kingdom, where surrogacy has been the law since the 1980s, to Greece of procreative tourism, passing through prohibitionist Italy up to the war-torn Ukraine.

director’s note

In the contemporary world a range of reproductive possibilities are now available and among them surrogacy is the one that raises the most socio-anthropological questions related to the balance of power inherent in such interactions, the different regulations involved and the individual and cultural significance.

Surrogacy highlights the dissociation between several aspects of procreation: the desire for a child, conception, pregnancy, childbirth, and child-raising, challenging the Western kinship model, based on biological reproduction and by blood ideology. The maternal role may be shared between two or even three women: she who desires motherhood and intends to parent the child, she who donates the egg required for conception of the embryo, and she who carries the child. Surrogacy Underground questions each one's gaze, raising a great diversity of questions without necessarily leading to answers, but indicating the complexity of lived stories and the irreducible uniqueness of experiences.

Direction and editing: Rossella Anitori, Darel Di Gregorio

Music: Leith Braham

Sound post-production: Dario Calvari

Image post-production: Filippo Corrieri

Graphic design: Giulia Pacifici

Translation and subtitling: Sotiria Gounari and Kristina Soriano

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