Virgínia and Adelaide, under the visionary direction of Yasmin Thayná and Jorge Furtado, offers a window into a crucial and often overlooked chapter in Brazilian history. The film, which already made a significant impact at the 52nd Gramado Film Festival and is now making its way to the Rio Film Festival, focuses on the intertwined lives of Virgínia Leone Bicudo (played by Gabriela Correa), a black Brazilian sociologist and psychoanalyst, and Adelaide Koch (Sophie Charlotte), a self-taught German-Jewish doctor and psychoanalyst.
The plot tells the story of the meeting of these two women in 1937, a year after Adelaide arrived in Brazil, fleeing Nazi persecution with her family. This meeting was the beginning of a joint journey that would challenge and transform the landscape of psychoanalysis in Brazil. Gabriela Correa’s performance as
Virgínia is powerful and carries with it an intensity that captures the complexity of being a black woman in a society permeated by sexism, patriarchy, racism and prejudice. Sophie Charlotte delivers an equally rich performance as Adelaide, exposing the struggles of a Jewish refugee who seeks to rebuild her life while facing her own barriers. Jorge Furtado, who also wrote the script, builds a narrative that blends fiction with documentary archives, providing historical and emotional depth to the film.
The ability to balance the fine line between documentary and fictional drama is one of the strengths of the direction and editing, creating a cinematic experience that is both educational and moving.
The production by Casa de Cinema de Porto Alegre, together with the co-production of GloboFilmes and GloboNews, guarantees a high level of quality. Virgínia e Adelaide is not only a tribute to two extraordinary women who helped popularize psychoanalysis in Brazil; it is also a reflection on resilience in the face of adversity.
The five-year relationship as doctor and patient, more than three decades as colleagues and a lifetime as friends is presented with a sensitivity that captures and celebrates the strength of their personal and professional connections. The film is scheduled to premiere in the first half of 2025. This is a historically necessary film, released at a time when memory and the fight for justice and equality are more relevant than ever.
In short, Virgínia e Adelaide is a cinematic work that promises to educate, inspire and move. Yasmin Thayná and Jorge Furtado deliver a film that not only fills a gap in Brazilian historiography, but also offers a cinematic experience. It is a celebration of the courage, friendship and lasting impact that these two remarkable women had on the field of psychoanalysis and on Brazilian society as a whole.
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