'Vita & Virginia' Trailer: Elizabeth Debicki And Gemma Arterton Have A Lesbian Literary Romance

By Hoai-Tran Bui/July 15, 2019 2:30 pm EST

The 1920s weren't as buttoned-up as modern day audiences would believe: skirts were shortening, bohemians were thriving, and literary icons were embarking on lesbian affairs. The latter is the subject of Vita & Virginia, the upcoming historical drama starring Gemma Arterton and Elizabeth Debicki as writers Vita Sackville-West and Virginia Woolf, respectively, who fall in love against the backdrop of high society 1920s England. Watch the Vita and Virginia trailer below.

Vita and Virginia Trailer

Arterton's Vita Sackville-West certainly isn't afraid of Virginia Woolf in Vita & Virginia, a sensual biographical drama about the two literary icons' famous affair which would serve as the inspiration for one of Woolf's most popular novels, Orlando: A Biography. The film is based on the pair's love letters to each other, which first served as the basis for a 1993 play of the same name by Eileen Atkins.

Vita & Virginia follows the free-spirited and brash Vita, who meets her idol Virginia Woolf, an eccentric writer that she believes to be a genius even as society dismisses her as mad. The two instantly connect and begin a secret romance which leads to Woolf writing Orlando, a satirical novel about the adventures of an androgynous poet throughout the centuries that would be hailed as a feminist classic.Chanya Button directs Vita & Virginia, which also stars Isabella Rossellini, Rupert Penry-Jones, and Peter Ferdinando.

Here is the synopsis for Vita & Virginia:

Set amidst the bohemian high society of 1920s England, Vita & Virginia tells the scintillating true story of a literary love affair that fueled the imagination of one of the 20th century's most celebrated writers. Vita Sackville-West (Gemma Arterton) is the brash, aristocratic wife of a diplomat who refuses to be constrained by her marriage, defiantly courting scandal through her affairs with women. When she meets the brilliant but troubled Virginia Woolf (Elizabeth Debicki), she is immediately attracted to the famed novelist's eccentric genius and enigmatic allure. So begins an intense, passionate relationship marked by all-consuming desire, intellectual gamesmanship, and destructive jealousy that will leave both women profoundly transformed and inspire the writing of one of Woolf's greatest works.

Vita & Virginia opens select theaters on August 23, 2019 before it hits VOD on August 30, 2019.