Eva 42 Years Old

“Laure Prouvost’s film opens with… the words, softly spoken, ‘My name is Eva, I am 43 years old’. A few seconds later we find ourselves looking at a wet residential street as the same voice (which sounds like that of a much younger woman) recounts, in faltering English, a scene that she witnessed there a few days earlier. Her story begins ordinarily enough, but as it moves to a strange and violent conclusion we are forced to think again. Everything about the video, which borrows the ‘show and tell’ mode of the video diary and home movie, makes us want to trust it. Eva herself, speaking to us in intimate, confiding tones, is supremely plausible. We find ourselves in the curious position of believing in her but not in what she is telling us.” – Patrick Henry