Paris, postwar. Diego Rivera abandons her. Alone, in a cold and foreign city, Russian painter Angelina Beloff writes letters burning with love, pain, and desolation. Guided by Elena Poniatowska, a true story of passion, loss, and resilience.
Twelve imaginary letters that Quiela, officially known as Angelina Beloff, a Russian artist exiled in Paris, sends to Mexican painter Diego Rivera after he has returned to Mexico. Diego has left Quiela behind after a ten-year relationship marked by artistic bohemia, poverty, and the loss of a child. Throughout the letters, Quiela tries to rebuild that broken emotional bond, searching for answers, comfort, or simply a sign that he has not forgotten her.
The first letters reveal a woman in love, hopeful, and faithful. Quiela recalls shared memories, misses him deeply, and clings to the illusion that Diego still loves her and will soon summon her. However, as the letters progress, sadness, restrained reproach, and the painful recognition of abandonment seep in. Despite receiving no reply, she continues to write, holding on to the memory of Diego and her idealization of him, which shape the tender and desperate tone of her words.
In her letters, Quiela also recalls the death of her son, Dieguito, and the coldness with which Diego faced that grief. She indirectly reproaches him for denying her the chance to have another child and, even now, for asking her to send money to the mother of another daughter he fathered in Paris. Despite her sorrow and jealousy, Quiela continues to justify herself before Diego, showing extreme emotional submission and a need for approval that leads her to forgive him everything.
Toward the end, resignation begins to take hold. Quiela already knows Diego has a new partner in Mexico and that he will not return. Still, she does not break completely: she thanks him for the money he has sent, wishes him well, and asks, as a final hope, what he thinks of her engravings. It is a small gesture, yet loaded with longing.
The letters conclude without any response from Diego. All that remains is Quiela’s voice—heart-rending, full of unrequited love, vulnerability, and dignity. It is a moving portrait of a woman overshadowed by her partner’s genius, turning writing into both refuge and testimony of her desolation.
RELEVANT INFORMATION: Elena Poniatowska is one of the most important writers of recent decades. Born in Paris in 1932, she moved to Mexico at the age of nine. Her career began in journalism. She has been awarded the National Prize for Linguistics and Literature in 2002, the Mazatlán Prize twice, the Xavier Villaurrutia Prize, the Alfaguara Prize, and the Rómulo Gallegos Prize. Her work has been translated into more than a dozen languages, and her trajectory as a journalist and writer has been recognized with multiple national and international awards. In 2013, she was granted the Cervantes Prize.
In Dear Diego, Elena Poniatowska gives voice to a woman silenced by history and love, in a moving drama full of passion and emotion, with a narrative that recalls News from the Empire by Fernando del Paso.
AUDIOVISUAL POTENTIAL: TV Series, Miniseries, Feature Film, TV Film.
AVAILABLE LANGUAGES: Spanish, English, Estonian, Arabic, Portuguese, Hebrew, Polish, French, Italian, German, Dutch, Galician.
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