AllMovie

This flawed biographical drama captures the turbulent love affair between the famous Russian mathematician Sonya Kovalevsky (Gunilla Nyroos) and her (unrelated) compatriot Maxim Kovalevsky (Thommy Berggren), while both were teaching at a university in Sweden (she was Sweden's first female professor, from 1883-1891). Although Sonya's brilliant mind could work easily with partial differential equations, she was alternately wildly jealous or angry at Maxim because he insisted they never marry, and in the end, he was to prevail. Sonya died of pneumonia at 41, leaving behind a sad and somewhat neglected daughter, well-interpreted here by Lina Pleijel.