Eden, the much awaited third feature film by talented Hungarian filmmaker Ágnes Kocsis (Adrienn Pál), will have its world premiere at the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR), in the Big Screen Competition. Nine films will compete for the VPRO Big Screen Award, which is worth €30,000 and guarantees a local theatrical release as well as screening on Dutch television.
A Hungary/ Romania co-production, Eden is produced by József Berger for Mythberg Films, and co-produced by Oana Giurgiu for Libra Film Productions, with the involvement of WFE (Belgium). The film is financed by the Hungarian Film Fund, the Hungarian tax incentive scheme and the MEDIA Programme’s development support.
Éva is allergic to all kinds of chemical substances, radio waves and electronic fields. She needs to live in total isolation; her only contact is with her brother and the doctors that keep experimenting on her. One day a psychiatrist comes to investigate if her illness is real or just imagined. Is love able to save her?
“Ágnes Kocsis explores the confusing ambiguity of modern world suspended between sustainability and emptiness. The character of Eva is poignantly embodied by actress Lana Baric and echoes Todd Haynes’ Safe, in which Julianne Moore suffers from an ‘environmental illnesses. The relationship between Éva and András becomes more intimate, and her condition seems to improve. But is love the antidote she was waiting for? Or is her condition incurable? And can the world be cured?”, wrote the IFFR programmers.
Eden features the Croatian actress Lana Baric (You Carry Me), Daan Stuyven, best known as a Belgian musician and singer, Romania’s Lóránt Bocskor-Salló (Children of Glory) and Hungarian actress Maya Roberti.
Shooting took place in Mafilm Studios, in Budapest and at various locations in the Hungarian countryside. The DoP is Máté Tóth Widamon (What Ever Happened to Timi).
Ágnes Kocsis (1971, Hungary), also the scriptwriter of the film, studied at the University of Budapest Faculty of Arts, majoring in Polish Language and Literature, Aesthetics and Film Theory. With Fresh Air (2006), her first feature film, she won several prizes, including Best Film in Brussels, Best First Feature at the Hungarian film week, and the FIPRESCI Award in Warsaw. Adrienn Pál (2010) won the FIPRESCI Prize at Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section and was nominated for the Grand Prize in Warsaw.