The Soul Keeper (2003)

In the present days, Maria Spielrein (Caroline Trousselard) and Fraser (Craig Ferguson) are in Russia making a research about the life of Sabina Spielrein (Emilia Fox). In the beginning of the Twentieth Century, this Russian girl was a patient treated by Dr. Jung (Iain Glen) and later they fall in love for each other and Sabina became his lover. While the researchers read the documents, the romance between Sabina and Dr. Jung is disclosed, in a time of revolution and war."Prendimi l'anima" is a sensitive and very beautiful romance. In accordance with the DVD, the attractive story is based on true events, and the movie has a wonderful cinematography and costume design. The direction is excellent and Emilia Fox is fantastic in the role of a crazy patient and obsessive lover. I am not sure whether the screenplay is original, since it recalled me Neil LaBute's "Possession", of the same year, with Gwyneth Paltrow and Aaron Eckhart and showing two parallel in time romances, but anyway watching "Prendimi l'anima" is worthwhile. My vote is eight.Title (Brazil): "Jornada da Alma" ("Jouney of the Soul")

Masterpiece-Woderful description of characters and background.Sabina Spielrein was,no doubt,a very special woman,and this film succeeds in doing justice with her sake,and especially with her extraordinary achievements in psychoanalysis therapy.The romantic affair she had with Dr.Jung is described powerfully by Faenza,and its ending is really heart-touching.Each main character gets a deep and full description-Dr.Jung,his methods of treatment and his complicated relationship with Sabina;Emma,that can't be judged of trying to save her family from being destroyed;and above all-Sabina herself,especially the development of her relationship with Dr.Jung,from being a patient into passion and true love.She gave her noble proof that her love was real,by letting him to choose his way,and still regarding him as a friend.The tragic destiny of Sabina is part of the Jewish tragedy during the 20th century,disappointed by the cruelty of the post-Lenin period in Russia,and later on-the Nazi holocaust.The history background is also very well told,without interrupting the plot itself.Everything here is told sensitively,and is very well acted.Emilia Fox gives here a wonderful performance,along the different situations of Sabina's complicated character and life.As Faenza made justice with Sabina's sake-we owe him.Faenza,you created a real masterpiece, and we salute you!

This movie *could* have been much more than it was. We have two historical figures, psychiatrist Karl Gustav Jung, and a gifted patient, Sabina Spielrein, who first becomes Jung's lover, and then a child psychiatrist in her own right. I had been hoping for deep psychological insight, instead I got a cartoonish loony (Sabina) and a starchy doctor (K.G. Jung). The characters are over-simplified, and their complex relationship is dumbed down to Harlequin Romance level. Furthermore, Sabina's life in Russia and her accomplishments are barely even mentioned in the movie. The subplot with Marie and Frazer (the present-day researchers) is 100% unnecessary, too. So, in the end you are left with a pleasant, if sleepy, non-controversial movie, suitable for airing on national tv at prime time. Come to think of it, maybe this is what they had in mind all along...

Very confused and confusing movie... as if the director (served by a terrible screenplay) couldn't decide what to do with it... Reflections on the healing power of love (and on its destroying power as well?)? Passionality and personality against social rules? Historical glimpse on the late 800 and early 900's psychiatry and the birth of dynamic psychoterapies (on which nothing short that a vague attention to the unconscious and the enphasis on the human relationship - as an attempt to humanize said psychiatry - is said... )? Moreover the counterpoint story in contemporary times, short of clarifying those themes, seems only to add cliché to cliché...I'd say Emilia Fox could have worked as Sabine Spielrein, BUT in another movie with another director... Not so bad Iain Glen as the esteemed young Carl Gustav Jung, even if the real one was a much more complex person, deserving to be treated with respect and care by able hands...Thumbs down to Jane Alexander, who should return to host TV games on Italian TV where she started...