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The Invisible Life of Euridice Gusmao 18 rating

A deserving winner of Cannes’ Un Certain Regard prize, this sumptuous tale of two sisters cruelly separated by family and fate makes for deeply moving drama.

Drama 2019 140 mins

Director: Karim Aïnouz

Overview

While Eurídice hopes to escape strait-laced 1950s Rio through piano studies in Vienna, Guida’s bid for freedom is to elope to Athens with her lover. Things don’t work out as planned for either sister – not that they’re aware of each other’s progress, since the letters they write to one another over the years go unanswered… Predicated on one especially bitter and ironic twist of fate that keeps the siblings apart, Aïnouz’s wonderfully sympathetic portrait of two very different women is also a mordant study of a profoundly patriarchal society where dreams are routinely dashed and freedoms denied. Hélène Louvart’s striking cinematography and a very sensitive use of music eloquently evoke the sisters’ energies and emotions, while the performances are top-notch throughout.