Adam & Evelyn

In the dominant historical narrative of Germany, the GDR was a backward and desolate country to live in whereas the fall of the Berlin Wall was a liberation. In recent years this narrative has been questioned more and more, especially due to existing social gaps between the Eastern and Western part of Germany. Without really representing “political“ cinema, the adaptation of Ingo Schulze’s eponymous novel Adam & Evelyn, almost unnoticeably, makes a subtle statement against the historical breakthrough the end of the GDR is supposed to have marked. In calm images reminiscent of Christian Petzold the film observes the love story of a tailor and a waitress against the background of the lifting of the Iron Curtain. In the images we can see a personal life whereas the sound puts it into dialogue with political change. Lethargic or inspiring contentment feels like an act of resistance: Is it our duty to move with change? Is it even important? Why does, what is supposed to be a prison, look like paradise? The film asks important questions about what it means to be free. Those questions are not answered. Instead they are allowed to live in the different dreams and expectations of Evelyn and Adam. (Viennale)