Cynthia Lowen, Director, Writer 

Sloan Grant(s) Received: 2023, Sundance Institute, Development Award

Project Type: Feature 

Genre: Biographical Drama

Length: 90 minutes

Field of Science: Physics

Stage: Development

Synopsis: 

Act 1:
A bedazzled Mileva arrives at the 1921 Nobel Prize ceremonies, introducing the overarching voiceover that will continue through the film: the imagined acceptance speech Mileva would had given, had she won the Prize instead of Albert.

After a childhood of bullying that formed her defiant spirit, Mileva is admitted to the Zurich Polytechnic Institute’s physics department, the only woman in a class that includes Albert Einstein. Albert is immediately smitten: he has finally met his match, his equal. Young lovers pitted against the world who share a passion for science, Mileva soon gets pregnant.

The pregnancy upends Mileva’s education: her teacher fails her, she’s thrown out of her boardinghouse, and returns to her parents in Serbia, where she gives birth to a little girl, Lieserl. Albert claims he is too poor to marry Mileva, but as soon as he has job, they’ll live together as a family. Lieserl contracts scarlet fever and dies. Mileva’s parents encourage her to start new – this loss can set you free – but for once, she follows her heart not her head.

Act 2:

Mileva and Albert are newlyweds living in Bern. By day he scrapes by on his salary working in a patent office, by night they exchange a whirlwind of ideas that shatter the world of physics, Albert develops the theories, Mileva does the math. This leads to the “Annus Mirabilus” – the miracle year of 1905 over which Albert publishes four groundbreaking papers that shake the world of physics to its core. He receives sole credit.

As Albert’s fame and career take off, he betrays his promises of equality, excluding Mileva from their work and his world of physics, while she raises their two sons. She attempts to re-enroll in school but is denied admission. Albert abandons the family for a love affair with his cousin, demanding a divorce. Mileva agrees on one condition: if he wins the Nobel Prize, she will receive the award money.

Act 3:

Mileva’s son Eduard is now in his 20s, undergoing tortuous treatment for schizophrenia. His sickness rocks the foundation of her belief that science is salvation. Mileva has become a librarian at the university, using her access to attempt to unlock the enigma of Eduard’s condition. She also discovers the world of physics is being upended by a new generation of physicists who’ve founded quantum mechanics.

Mileva begins to see small signs of the ways she has left an indelible mark on the world, even if anonymously. She collapses from a stroke, and we return to the Nobel Prize venue, where Mileva concludes her speech in the realm of quantum mechanics: “You don’t have to know my name. But you will be changed by me. Whether you know it. Or not.”