When developing the script, Moretti used what he had written during his late mother’s illness. Moretti’s mother, Agata, was a teacher of classical languages (Moretti’s Parents’ books line the walls of the film’s interiors), and Giulia Lazzarini, who plays Margherita’s mother, wears clothes Agata wore in hospital. The car Margherita drives is Moretti’s,

Interviewed in Sight & Sound Magazine (October 2015) Moretti said “After my mother’s death, some of her former students told me stories about her, and I suddenly felt I’d missed out on something quite significant, even fundamental about her. I felt that very strongly, and painfully. So by dealing in the film both with Latin and with the memories of those whom Margherita’s mother taught, we’re looking at what remains of people who have died; the may not be with us anymore, but in this sense they do live on in our lives”.

According to Nanni Moretti, however, the real autobiographical aspect of the film ‘is the feeling that Margherita has – that she never feels up to what she’s doing, that she’s always ill at ease’. Rather than focus on the precise moment of death, Moretti preferred to focus on the reactions of Margherita’s daughter, Livia, as she learns of her grandmother’s death.