Searching Eva (2019). CORSO Film.
Pia Hellenthal’s debut documentary feature Searching Eva, which premiered earlier this week at the Berlinale, explores the life of Eva Collé, a photogenic 20-something, who fled her conservative Italian hometown for a life of sexual freedom and drug-fuelled hedonism in Berlin. Through a combination of sex work and modelling, Collé finds financial independence, even becoming an influencer of sorts by sharing every detail of her grittily glamorous existence with an army of transfixed followers online.
You might be forgiven for writing off the film as another familiar tale of millennial narcissism and Berlin excess. But it quickly becomes apparent that the protagonist is more complex and enigmatic than she first appears. “Eva’s been blogging since she was 15, and to me her writing really captured something that was in the air,” Hellenthal explains to SLEEK. “I was initially intrigued by her as a person, but I became fascinated by my inability to pin her down as any one thing. I was left with this strong awareness of my own impulse to define people, and I decided that the film should primarily be about the viewer’s relationship with Eva. So, then we just had to figure out whether it was possible to make a portrait of someone who rejects any label you attach to her!”
The pair regard the rejection of labels as a radical political gesture. As Hellenthal recalls, “I was overwhelmed when she said ‘I decided from a very young age that I didn’t want to work, because I don’t want to define myself as a particular type of worker’.” This comment struck the director as a major topic to explore in the film. Collé elaborates, “I’m a working-class person who believes that we need to resist being defined primarily as ‘workers’ in order to achieve something in society”.
Searching Eva (2019). CORSO Film.
Despite having complete autonomy over her public narrative to this point, Collé had no real qualms about handing over authorial control to Hellenthal. “Pia wasn’t taking anything from me that I wasn’t already putting out into the world. And I think people are always going to interpret what I say and do according to their own prejudices, so I didn’t think of this as a big shift. But I was only 21 when she first got in touch, and I was extremely flattered that someone wanted to make a movie about me! Today I would probably be a bit more guarded.”
The film depicts Berlin as an adult amusement park in which Eva is free to explore her fluid sexuality. But even here, aspects of her life are regarded as provocative by some. In one cringe-inducing scene, a potential housemate assumes Eva is joking when she explains that she’s a sex worker, and is unable to hide his shock when he realises she’s telling the truth. “Berlin is certainly better than Italy, where I was literally afraid of being killed every time I worked. People here at least recognise sex workers as real people. In Italy, they treat you like an object. But there’s a stigma attached to it here as well.”
Still, she’s adamant that dealing with such stigma is preferable to the indignity she suffered as a model. “I felt much more objectified in the fashion world than in sex work. The two worlds are similar to a degree, but the way I’ve been treated in fashion is incomparable to anything else I’ve experienced. And the pay is so miserable. It seems the higher you climb, the less you get paid. Big brands will pay you nothing because they know you’ll do the work for exposure. People kept telling me on my blog “you had a career lined up in fashion, but you ruined yourself with drugs!” But it was my choice to not go down that route, because it made me feel like shit.”
Searching Eva (2019). CORSO Film.
Searching Eva offers a refreshingly nuanced look at the pros and cons of documenting one’s life online. Hellenthal explains, “I wasn’t really interested in Eva as an influencer, but I was intrigued by the dynamic between her and her followers. On the one hand, I was discovering this huge community of women who speak frankly and honestly online, and there are obviously huge benefits to that. But on the other hand, you have these anonymous people judging a woman for everything she’s doing, from her haircut, to her opinions, to how many people she’s sleeping with.” The film is narrated by a steady stream of comments lifted directly from Eva’s blogs, the cumulative effect of which is exhausting. But Collé insists that this incessant dialogue with strangers is ultimately worthwhile. “Despite all the negative comments and the judgement, I really feel like I’ve built a strong community. People have helped me there, without me ever needing to say “I need help”!”
In person, as on screen, Eva can at times seem frustratingly contradictory. When discussing the film’s accuracy as a portrait of her life, she boldly declares “To me, representation is always a lie.” Moments later, she cheerfully admits “I thought it was very faithful to the blog… I feel (the filmmakers) did a great job of getting my point across”. But by playfully rejecting the notion of truth as a binary concept, Eva forces you to question every facet of her public persona. As such, Searching Eva ultimately delivers a valuable lesson: that the healthiest way to navigate both an image-led online culture and a label-obsessed society is to approach each new encounter with a healthy dose of self-awareness and scepticism.
Searching Eva is currently showing at the 69th Berlinale. For more information, see the film’s website here.