A stately boarding school in Northern Italy. Sunrise and mist. The building seems uninhabited, shuttered and cold. We see two figures awake in the same bed: one is a life-sized doll, the other its all-white masked puppeteer. Others—exactly the same kind of pairing—start their day in the dormitory by putting on clothes. This is daily routine, this requires discipline. The camera follows the Principal Dress, across playtime, soup for lunch, Headmistress inspection, culminating in an ecstatic scene of rupture, rapture and liberating transformation. A girl is born.
These are the words that transport us directly into the short film by Norwegian director and actress Mona Fastvold. Her distinctive signature is evident in an ambitious and deeply character-driven narrative, focused on the protagonists, their thoughts, and their emotions. Women follow a precise choreography throughout their lives, playing roles and embodying figures—until something sparks opposition, rebellion. And it is precisely at that point, for Fastvold, that freedom begins. Discipline, the 31st chapter of Miu Miu’s Women’s Tales project, reflects on female rebellion and on women’s determination to emerge within a restrictive society. The characters’ experiences are central, lived through every possible expression, both positive and negative. Freedom is conveyed through small acts of refusal and defiance. The director explains that she wanted to present the story of “a girl stepping forward into the world”.
“A girl stepping forward into the world, visible at last, still unfinished.”
The idea of drawing inspiration from a garment in the collection came from personal experience: Mona Fastvold herself wore the same dress featured in the film during a press conference. Because it was worn in a setting charged with nervousness, the dress revealed itself to be a kind of armor—a covering behind which to take refuge, to reconnect, and to confront one’s own vulnerabilities. Dolls were used as extensions of the self, as a way to explore the private and the public, the interior and the exterior. Music, movement, choreography, costume: all are elements that explore the girlish world of being a young woman. Femininity is not only seduction and intimacy; it is also portrayed as constraint and discipline, as control and attentiveness, as care, and as ritual. Clothing is never neutral—it always represents something broader and deeply personal. The celebration of femininity once again coexists with limits and rules invisibly carved into society and into the narrative context of a story that belongs to everyone. There is nothing heroic about it, but rather something sincere and unique—nothing stereotypical, nothing predictable. Discipline brings to the stage a story of strength and rebirth.
“Once I became a director, I realised, to me, the archetype more correct for the job of a director is the multitasking mother. […] You may not yet know who you are, but you know how you are meant to move.”
The new episode of Miu Miu’s Women’s Tales premiered at Village East by Angelika in New York City and is now available on Miu Miu’s digital channels, as well as on MUBI from March 13, 2026.
For further information Miumiu.com.
