Synopsis
Vita & Virginia is the true story of the passionate relationship between literary trailblazer Virginia
Woolf and her only lover, the enigmatic author Vita Sackville West. The film is a celebration of their
unconventional bond while being a reminder that only genuine connection makes life worth living.
It’s the roaring 1920's. VIRGINIA WOOLF has reached the apex of modern world literature for her
landmark book, Mrs. Dalloway, yet nothing soothes the darkness that plagues her. She is powerless
over the mood swings that randomly lift her to creative heights and then drown her under the weight
of melancholia, deepening her need for seclusion. Virginia’s husband LEONARD does what he can
to buoy her up, as do her BLOOMSBURY GROUP friends, but Woolf pays the price for for her
genius.
Woolf’s illness does not stop VITA SACKVILLE-WEST from courting her with letters of admiration.
Vita has a soft spot for Virginia’s writing – and being a Sapphist, she admits having one for Virginia
herself.
Vita’s letters and poems compel Virginia into a courtship that is hardly concealed from their
respective husbands. Soon, Virginia is enthralled by Vita. She is everything Virginia is not –
extroverted, direct, in possession of a strongly magnetic personality and, as Virginia writes,
‘amazing legs’.
When Vita journeys into the far reaches of the Middle East, she begins a series of love letters to
Virginia that richly detail her adventures. These letters inspire Woolf’s masterpiece, Orlando.
The novel chronicles the adventures of an androgynous hero who inhabits multiple lifetimes as both
a man and a woman – a thinly veiled expression of Virginia’s own romantic awakening for Vita.
Upon Vita’s return, the two women consummate their relationship – a major step for the sexually
timid WooIf. Although she enjoys spells of contentedness through the next decade and a half of
their turbulent relationship, Virginia eventually takes her own life in the River Ouse. The bond
between Virginia and Vita endures in Woolf’s canonical literature, which today enjoys even more
popularity than in her lifetime.
Vita & Virginia is a timeless love story, told in an exciting contemporary style, about two women who
smashed through social barriers to find solace in forbidden connection.