2013 · documentary · drama
Elena
Directed by Petra Costa1h 22m2013
Petra heads to New York in search of her older sister after a long time of being separated. They are both movie actresses and heirs of the wounds of the Brazilian dictatorship. But Petra has only a few clues: home movies, newspaper clippings, a diary...
Our read: Elena (2013) reads as a heavy, slow-burn, inventive documentary · drama entry — measured in intensity, intimate in scope, measured in temperature, nihilistic in outlook, with a strong directorial signature.
Heavy, slow-burn, measured documentary / drama, inventive in texture. Nihilistic, intimate, measured.
- heavy
- slow-burn
- intimate
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How Elena feels to watch.
Each axis is scored by hand, not from votes or genre averages. The bar uses the film's own colours.
What watching it is actually like.
“You want an intimate sister-ghost memoir pieced from home movies.”
Skip it tonight — Skip if grief-heavy personal documentaries will leave you hollow tonight.
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