SEARCHING EVA Documentary Films

For 25-year-old Eva living in Berlin, complex emotions surrounding adolescence, family, body, art and sex work are processed publicly through unflinchingly personal photos and writings posted on the internet and Instagram. In an attempt to capture the essence of this elusive personality, Pia Hellenthal’s extraordinary feature debut is a modern cinematic portrait that cleverly dismantles identity construction and performativity via social media. A life on-display unfolds as a barrage of fragmented sounds and hyper-composed images interspersed with quiet moments of reflection. Followers, alternately revolted and inspired by Eva’s projected self-acceptance are compelled to interject with their own opinions, insecurities and concerns that Eva might not be “a real person.” A profound openness extended towards them inspires an active identity shaping, a scrounging and scavenging, begging the question as to whether anyone is “a real person” after all. –Malin Kan