Sofia Kovalevskaya 1986

Directed by Ayan Shakhmaliyeva

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.