[7] The film depicts the life of Violeta del Carmen Parra Sandoval and her journey towards becoming one of Chile's greatest folklorists and artists.

It chronicles her early guitar playing, her musician father's influence, and her experiences in the rural settings of southern Chile's Ñuble Province.

The film follows Parra's project to study Chilean folk music, with the aim of preserving and reinterpreting traditional composition styles to create the genre now known as Nueva Canción Chilena.

The film explores Parra's tumultuous relationship with Swiss flautist Gilbert Favre, whom she met when he accompanied an anthropologist specializing in Chilean folklore to Chile.

The film also follows Parra and Favre's stay in Geneva and Paris, including her visit to the Musée du Louvre, where she became the first Latin American woman to have a solo exhibition.

Upon their return to South America, Favre and Parra separated, as he wanted to live in Bolivia, where he was part of a successful Bolivian music group, Los Jairas.

"[12] René Naranjo focused on Francisa Gavilán's acting, referring to it as "emotional and outstanding, a Violeta full of qualities that gave unity to the ensemble and shed light on a personality that was marked by contrasts.

"[13] Ana Josefa Silva of La Segunda wrote "in the end, it is a story brimming with truth, with passion, with happiness, and with profound sadness.

[14] Violeta Went to Heaven was selected by the National Council of Culture and the Arts as the Chilean entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 84th Academy Awards,[15][16] but it did not make the final shortlist.

Violeta se fue a los cielos was awarded the World Cinema Jury Prize (Dramatic) at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival.