Winner of the Un Certain Regard prize at the Cannes film festival and Brazil’s submission for the Academy Awards’ International Feature Film Oscar, The Invisible Life of Euridice Gusmao tells a simple, almost elemental story of two sisters separated by chance and circumstance. We meet 18-year-old Euridice (Carol Duarte) and her older sister Guida (Julia Stockler) in 1950s Rio, being raised by middle-class, conservative parents. When Guida runs off to Greece with her boyfriend, only to return pregnant and single, her father throws her out and disowns her. The screenplay, adapted from a 2016 novel by Martha Batalha, creates some parallels in the sisters’ lives without overplaying the coincidence. What’s more, The Invisible Life of Euridice Gusmao includes one of the simplest, saddest lines in a movie this year: “Things didn’t go as I’d dreamt.”4 starsThe Invisible Life of Euridice Gusmao opens Dec. 20 at the Lightbox in Toronto; Jan. 3 in Montreal; and Jan. 10 in Vancouver.

Source: National Post December 20, 2019 21:00 UTC