In this footage, the director discovered Nadine Hwang. Tracing her story eventually leads him to Sylvie Bianchi, the granddaughter of Nelly Mousset-Vos. He follows her as she engages, for the first time, with her grandmother’s personal effects. Amongst diaries, poems, and photographs, a deeply personal archive begins to unfold. Through reading love letters and camp accounts, she comes to understand her grandmother beyond the family narratives.
In 1944, the Belgian opera singer Nelly and the French-Chinese diplomat’s daughter Nadine fall in love in the Ravensbrück concentration camp. Nelly is imprisoned as a political prisoner for espionage: she worked as a courier for the Belgian resistance group “Luc”. The exact reason for Nadine’s imprisonment remains unclear to this day – she is believed to have helped people escape to Spain. After the war, they find each other again and live together in South America as “cousins.” From the lesbian scene in 1920s Paris to a self-created queer network in Venezuela, the film offers rare insights into a queer life spanning decades and continents.
The documentary brings to light a queer survival story that for decades had no place in the collective memory. Nelly and Nadine had documented their shared experiences and attempted to publish their memoirs, yet were unable to find a publisher during their lifetimes. This film finally makes their writings and memories accessible to a wider audience. In 2022 Nelly & Nadine received the Teddy Jury Award at the Berlinale.
Text: Esther Göttert