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Eva

Does loving your parents unconditionally make you complicit in their actions?

synopsis

Rural Norway. Spring 1945. The fruit trees are blossoming, as is Eva, a sensitive and assertive 14-year-old who has fun breaking the rules and turning heads when she sneaks out of the house in red lipstick to meet a boy she might have a crush on. She has a strong bond with her father and a difficult one with her mother, but the family is united. They want for nothing. This changes dramatically when the war ends, and her father is sent to prison on suspicion of torturing a resistance fighter. Then her mother is taken too. Eva and her little brother are sent to live with their grandma, while government officials prepare to sell their house. Eva is excluded from the community and excommunicated from the church. Her adolescent love interest is for now beyond reach, though desire remains. She is bullied and blamed for crimes she knew nothing about. Is her father guilty? Eva refuses to believe it. She breaks back into the family home and squats there alone, until news of her father’s suicide. Offered the opportunity to change her name and move on with her life, she chooses to keep faith with her past and with her parents. It is a choice that may cost her future. Eva seeks closure where there is only uncertainty.

Director’statement

“If you had that upbringing or came from that family or had those friends, you could also end up on the wrong side during the war” (philosopher Arne Næss). Eva has to face the consequences of her parents’ ruinous choices. It becomes a journey where she searches for answers and questions the truth. She is left alone and loathed by everyone. Eva is confronted with a society that wants revenge in the hour of reckoning. Even though she is innocent of her parents’ actions, society is relentless. Eva conveys a very complex picture of post-war reality. I want to make everything as timeless as possible, whilst remaining faithful to the period in which the action takes place. Nothing is black and white - the war affects people on both sides, and not least those who should not be blamed: the children. I want to create an intimate, raw and authentic cinematic experience from a young teenager’s perspective, with the human and psychological struggle always at the fore.

TFL PROGRAMME:
ScriptLab 2024

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