Brazilian filmmaker Karim Aïnouz took out Cannes’ prestigious Un Certain Regard prize with this exquisite tropical melodrama about two sisters who share an unshakable bond in an oppressively patriarchal culture.

Awash in saturated colour, heightened emotion and balmy stylistic excess, the new film from Brazilian director Karim Aïnouz (Central Airport THF, MIFF 2018) lives up to its delicious promise of “tropic melodrama” while delivering a rich and pointed feminist critique.

Based on Martha Batalha’s caustically funny novel of the same name, The Invisible Life of Eurídice Gusmão opens in early 1950s Rio de Janeiro, picking up the story with virtuous teenage pianist Eurídice and her fun-loving older sister Guida. Aiming to escape their overbearing family life, Guida elopes and runs away to Greece, while Eurídice dreams of studying in Austria. Circumstance keeps the sisters apart over the ensuing years, and the film follows their trials and tribulations as they try to find their way back to each other. Lushly expressive and emotionally operatic, it’s a wholly immersive, rewarding cinematic experience.

“Ravishing … This heartbroken tale of two sisters separated for decades by familial shame and deceit is a waking dream, saturated in sound, music and color to match its depth of feeling.” – Variety