Spring 2026 - Desirée Pöpper: Where Saudade Lives

There is a word in Portuguese that doesn’t fully translate: saudade, a longing that carries both absence and love. For Desirée Pöpper, it defines more than distance. It defines identity.

Born in Brazil and shaped in Italy, she transformed the feeling of being an outsider into perspective. Through rigorous theatre training, @desireepopper learned to hold eye contact, to steady her body, to let her voice fully leave her chest — no longer shrinking, no longer hiding.

Her path moves between countries, cultures and screens, yet her center remains the same. Neither fully here nor there, she found home in the in-between.