The Trouble with Being Born

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The Trouble with Being Born

2020

1h 34m

Drama

Sci-Fi

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

92%

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13 Reviews

28%

Popcornmeter

Fewer than 50 Ratings

Elli is an android and lives with a man she calls her father. Together they drift through the summer. During the day they swim in the pool and at night he takes her to bed. She shares his memories and anything else he programs her to recall. Memories that mean everything to him but nothing to her. Yet, one night she sets off into the woods following a fading echo. The story of a machine and the ghosts we all carry within us.

Sandra Hall

Sydney Morning Herald

A strange, haunting parable about innocence exploited.

Rated: 3.5/5

Dec 2, 2020

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Jonathan Romney

Screen International

There's more at issue here than mere provocation, with Wollner's complex, artfully crafted, sometimes wilfully perplexing film delving boldly into questions of memory, gender, identity and indeed film language.

Mar 18, 2020

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Jessica Kiang

Variety

[A] desperately creepy, queasy, thought-provoking film...

Mar 2, 2020

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Carmen Paddock

One Room With A View

The Trouble With Being Born raises questions it possibly cannot answer. Its audacious premise, clearly handled with thought and care, raises cycles of ruin that continue beyond the film's 90 minutes.

Rated: 3/5

Nov 28, 2021

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Ayeen Forootan

In Review Online

[The film] is remarkable not just for its futuristic space and atmosphere, but also for how it depicts the relationship of the central house and the surrounding mystic forest.

Jun 5, 2021

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Yago Paris

El antepenúltimo mohicano

An unbalanced, contradictory work... with an evasive and elliptical script. [Full review in Spanish]

Rated: 2/5

Mar 4, 2021

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Audience Member

A beautiful and tragic film that questions human morals

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

06/22/24

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cees t

Some lonely old people neglecting a sentient android. Typical depressing arthouse movie. 4/10 - Very bad.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

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clare k

This poignant, melancholy film is more about memory than AI, about the stories we tell ourselves, and others, about the past. Beautifully shot, but I found the implied physical intimacy between 'papa' and the android girl rather gratuitous.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

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Sandra Wollner

Director

Lena Watson

Elli

Dominik Warta

Georg

Ingrid Burkhard

Ms. Schikowa

Jana McKinnon

Elli

Sandra Wollner

Writer

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Synopsis

Elli is an android and lives with a man she calls her father. Together they drift through the summer. During the day they swim in the pool and at night he takes her to bed. She shares his memories and anything else he programs her to recall. Memories that mean everything to him but nothing to her. Yet, one night she sets off into the woods following a fading echo. The story of a machine and the ghosts we all carry within us.

Director: Sandra Wollner
Producer: Lixi Frank, David Bohun, Andi G. Hess, Astrid Schäfer, Viktoria Stolpe, Timm Kröger
Screenwriter: Sandra Wollner, Roderick Warich, Sandra Wollner, Roderick Warich
Production Co: Panama, Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg, Das Kleine Fernsehspiel
Genre: Drama, Sci-Fi
Original Language: German
Release Date (Streaming): Nov 24, 2021
Runtime: 1h 34m