IFFR 2020 - Eden
ROTTERDAM INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVALAmidst the global pandemic of COVID-19, a strain of Coronavirus that has killed thousands of people and forced millions to practice some degree of social distancing — not attending work or school, being in self-quarantine or self-isolation — it’s a fitting time to watch Hungarian filmmaker Ágnes Kocsis’ rumination on the devastating effects of loneliness, Eden. While Kocsis, who also wrote the screenplay, does not exactly provide any sort of enlightenment on the subject or even tell a completely original or captivating story, her film is ambitious and contains flashes of greatness.
Eden’s premise is an undeniably intriguing one: Éva (Lana Barić) is allergic to nearly everything — read: EVERYTHING — and lives in almost total isolation, broken up only by visits from her brother, Gyuri (Lóránt Bocskor-Salló), and trips to a lab where some shady doctors run tests on her. It’s mentioned at one point that her allergies were caused by some form of environmental destruction, although the environment and climate change do not seem to be Kocsis’s focus. Instead, the thematic center of the film is on the effects of Éva’s isolation. The inciting incident of the story occurs when András (Daan Stuyven), a psychiatrist tasked with evaluating Éva’s condition, enters the picture. He predictably provides a certain level of comfort to her and you can see where the film will go from there.
The film features cold, sterile, and clinical production design and cinematography that perfectly capture the feelings and everyday life of the protagonist. Production design that truly creates a futuristic world that feels worth exploring is especially impressive given the film’s low budget. Most of the film takes place in Éva’s apartment, so it kind of had to be at least somewhat interesting.
The cinematography is great but also contributes to the film’s biggest issue. Máté Tóth Widamon shoots the film in clear, widescreen compositions that are mostly wide shots. Entire scenes are almost shot in one take and mediums and close-ups are hard to find. It all leads to photography that keeps the viewer at a distance, further emphasizing the cold, sterile and clinical nature of the film.
Unfortunately, that becomes the main takeaway. A story that could have been imbued with real humanity and emotional resonance winds up being cold, sterile and clinical.
Another aspect of the film that doesn’t help with increasing the heat are the performances. Barić’s turn as Éva is indisputably the best performance here, only because her character is the only one that feels plausibly real. Éva is dynamic and has different emotions in different scenes, like a real human being. The two other performances that matter — Stuyven as the psychiatrist and Bocskor-Salló as the brother — feel trite in comparison. Stuyven, who is actually a composer, shows his lack of acting chops. His character, the instigator of change in the protagonist, is one-note and never shows any range of emotions, despite having a subplot all his own. Bocskor-Salló, on the other hand, doesn’t even give a performance. The brother exists only to serve the whims of the plot.
Despite some degree of technical achievement, Eden is not going to bring comfort or even entertainment value while the COVID-19 outbreak is ongoing. Over an excessively long runtime of 153 minutes, it never picks up steam or shocks the viewer. All one is left with after watching is a rather vapid sense of lifelessness.
