Elena is a Brazilian film directed by Petra Costa and produced by Busca Vida Filmes. It is based on the life of the actress Elena Andrade, Petra Costa's older sister.

Plot

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.