The first woman to crack the math boys' club — and she had to fake-marry to do it.
A film about the remarkable life of Russian mathematician Sofia Vasilyevna Kovalevskaya (1850-1891), the first woman to become a corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. Sofia Kovalevskaya's life was full of complex and dramatic twists and turns. These included a fictitious marriage that allowed her to obtain a higher education abroad; a period when she and her husband embarked on a commercial venture; and, finally, her breakup with him. The film's drama is built on the fact that Sofia Kovalevskaya's grown-up daughter, Fufa, several years after her mother's death, tries to understand who she was not only as a mathematician and public figure, but also simply as a person.
Acting
Elena Safonova burns with quiet, equation-fueled desperation.
Production
Lavish 19th-century European academic world, authentically stuffy.
Writing
Frame narrative of daughter investigating mother's secrets.
Director
Ayan Shakhmaliyeva
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The real Kovalevskaya won the Prix Bordin for her paper on Saturn's rings—she was so sure a man would win, she didn't attend the ceremony.
Director Ayan Shakhmaliyeva was one of few Soviet female directors trusted with prestige biopics; this was her rare intersection of feminist subject and state-approved production values.
SU
