Searching Eva: Deliberately surface-deep portrait of an anxiety-stricken influencer passes off superficiality as art

By Liam Lacey

Rating: C plus

Can you say anything profound about superficiality? People have tried. Take Nietzche – please!  "What is required is to stop courageously at the surface, the fold, the skin, to adore appearance, to believe in forms, tones, words, in the whole Olympus of appearance.”

Searching Eva, is a German documentary-ish film that stops, courageously or not, at the surface. It debuted at the political, gender-bending Panorama sidebar at last year’s Berlin Film Festival

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The director is Pia Hellenthal, and her subject is a young woman named Eva Collé. Though only in her mid-twenties with a self-described disdain for work, Collè has a long and varied c.v.that includes, in no particular order:  model, recovering drug addict, sexual abuse survivor, Instagram star, anarchist, sex worker, blogger, feminist, musician and poet.

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At the time of the film, Collè went by the name Eva, but now goes by Adam. In any case, Collè is tall and sinewy, with the elongated face of a Modigliani painting, and dark hair in a boyish mullet. We see this shape-shifter in a series of handsomely shot tableaux, with roommates, lovers and clients in various apartments, on beaches, against interesting architectural backgrounds. 

The film’s voice-over, lifted from Adam’s blogs, consists of observations of everything from her home town to her (disappointing) orgasms, with an occasional wisecrack: (“The patriarchy fucks me over every day, so I may as well get paid for it.”).

As well, there are on-screen texts from Collè’s social media followers’ comments, from both those who find her authenticity inspiring and those that condemn her lifestyle. While she’s not running up Billie Eilish-like social media influence, we understand that Collè is a kind of lightning rod for sexually-anxious, McJob-holding, roommate-sharing, millennial types. 

We also get the not-so-deep message, writ large and underscored, that sometimes transparency may be the best disguise of all.

 Searching Eva. Directed by Pia Hellendthal, with Eva Collè. Available on major VOD platforms.