Elena

Elena is a 2012 Brazilian documentary film directed by Petra Costa. It is based on the life of the actress Elena Andrade, Petra Costa's older sister. Synopsis Elena moves to New York with the same dream her mother had: to become a movie actress. She leaves behind a childhood spent in hiding during Brazil’s military dictatorship and her teenage years amid theater plays and homemade videos. She also leaves behind Petra, her 7-year-old sister. Finding little success she returns to Brazil but is accepted into university back in New York. This time her mother and Petra go to live in New York with her. Ultimately it's a film about loss, grief and memory Synopsis She said goodbye with a modest present: a shell. “If you ever miss me, put you ear to the shell so we can talk”, Elena tells her little sister, 13 years her junior. Petra, at just 7, would listen over and over again to that shell in the weeks to come. Months, then years, then two decades passed. Petra was already an actress and filmmaker when she returned to New York in search of Elena, where she decided to film her own loneliness and longing for her sister. Elena is a film about the persistence of memories, the irreversibility of loss, the effects of her sister’s absence on a 7-year-old girl, emotions which Petra refers to as “inconsolable memories”. “Gradually, the pain and grievance turn to water, they dissolved into memory”, says the director, both actress and biographical character in her film.