A fertile time for Brazilian cinema, the country’s Oscar entry this year is Karim Aïnouz’s Invisible Life, which premiered under the title of The Invisible Life of Eurídice Gusmão at Cannes this year, where it won the top prize in its Un Certain Regard section. Starring Carol Duarte, Julia Stockler, and Fernanda Montenegro, the melodrama tells the story of two sisters in Rio de Janeiro in 1950. Picked up by Amazon Studios, the U.S. trailer has now arrived ahead of a release later this month.

Leonardo Goi said in his review, “Karim Aïnouz’s The Invisible Life of Eurídice Gusmão is a tale of resistance. It hones in on two inseparable sisters stranded in–and ultimately pulled apart by–an ossified patriarchal world. It is an engrossing melodrama where melancholia teems with rage, with a tear-jerking finale that feels so devastating because of the staggering mix of love and fury that precedes it. It is, far and above, an achingly beautiful story of sisterly love.”

See the trailer and poster below.

Rio de Janeiro, 1950. Eurídice, 18, and Guida, 20, are two inseparable sisters living at home with their conservative parents. Although immersed in a traditional life, each one nourishes a dream: Eurídice of becoming a renowned pianist, Guida of finding true love. In a dramatic turn, they are separated by their father and forced to live apart. They take control of their separate destinies, while never giving up hope of finding each other. A tropical melodrama from the director of Madame Satã.

Invisible Life opens on December 20 and will make its NYC premiere on December 10 at Film at Lincoln Center with the director in person.

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