The Trouble with Being Born is a 2020 science fiction drama film directed and co-written by Sandra Wollner. An Austrian-German co-production, the film follows Elli (Lena Watson), an android made to resemble the missing daughter of Georg (Dominik Warta), the man with whom she lives. At its premiere at the 70th Berlin International Film Festival, the film attracted controversy over its depiction of an implied sexual relationship between Georg and Elli, a childlike android made to resemble his missing daughter.
Plot Elli is an android in the form of a ten-year-old girl who lives with Georg in a secluded house in the woods. She calls him "Papa". Georg has programmed her with memories associated with his daughter, who disappeared ten years earlier, and Elli follows routines based on those memories. They spend their days swimming in the pool and their evenings together, and a sexual relationship between them is implied. Elli can repeat the memories Georg has given her but has no personal connection to them. One night, she leaves the house and wanders into the forest. Elli is found by Toni, who brings her to his elderly mother, Ms. Schikowa. The android is reprogrammed and altered to become Emil, a likeness of Schikowa's brother, who died about sixty years earlier. Memories from Elli's previous programming begin to mingle with those assigned to Emil, and the two identities increasingly overlap.
Cast Lena Watson as Elli/Emil, an android Dominik Warta as Georg Ingrid Burkhard as Ms. Schikowa Jana McKinnon as Elli, Georg's human daughter Simon Hatzl as Toni
Production Director and co-writer Sandra Wollner has referred to the film as the "antithesis to Pinocchio". Wollner initially intended to cast a 20-year-old actress in the role of the android Elli, but after removing some of the more explicit elements from the film's script, instead chose 10-year-old actress Lena Watson, a stage name inspired by Emma Watson, for the role. The scenes in which the android is shown nude were accomplished using computer-generated imagery. Watson also wore a silicone mask and wig, which served to conceal her identity and enable her to resemble another actress who appears later in the film.
Release and reception The Trouble with Being Born had its world premiere at the 70th Berlin International Film Festival on 25 February 2020, as part of the festival's Encounters section. It was reported that several audience members walked out during the premiere. The film received the Special Jury Award in the Encounters section. The film was released theatrically in Austria by filmdelights on 18 June 2021, followed by a German theatrical release through Eksystent Distribution on 1 July 2021. Jonathan Romney of Screen Daily called the film "a powerful and revelatory achievement [...] complex, artfully crafted, sometimes wilfully perplexing". Jessica Kiang of Variety called it a "desperately creepy, queasy, thought-provoking film", and concluded: "Wollner's lacerating intelligence and riveting craft make this extraordinarily effed-up riff on the 'Pinocchio' legend [...] much more than empty provocation". Chris Barsanti of Slant Magazine gave the film a rating of two out of four stars, and wrote that the film "suffers from the same issue as its moody androids: enervation borne out of repetition." The Melbourne International Film Festival decided not to screen the film at its 2020 festival, citing concerns raised by two forensic psychologists that it might "[normalise] sexual interest in children" and be "used as a source of arousal for men interested in child abuse material". The decision to remove the film from the festival line-up was criticized by film critics Peter Krausz, Tom Ryan and David Stratton. Amid controversy in Australia, Sandra Hall of The Sydney Morning Herald described the film as "strangely moral".
Awards and accolades 70th Berlin International Film Festival: Special Jury Award (Encounters) 2020 Diagonale: Grand Diagonale Prize for Best Feature Film; Best Editing for Hannes Bruun; Best Sound Design for Peter Kutin; Acting Award for Dominik Warta; Thomas Pluch Special Jury Prize for Sandra Wollner 2020 First Steps Award: Best Feature-Length Film for Sandra Wollner 2020 Vienna International Film Festival: Special Jury Prize 2021 Austrian Film Award: Best Feature Film; Best Director for Sandra Wollner; Best Makeup for Gaby Grünwald; Best Sound Design for Johannes Schmelzer-Ziringer, Peter Kutin and Simon Peter
References
External links The Trouble with Being Born at IMDb The Trouble with Being Born at Rotten Tomatoes
