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EVA-MARIA

By Lukas LADNER

GOLDEN GIRLS FILMPRODUKTION & FILMSERVICES - as PROD

Documentary - Completed 2021

Eva-Maria likes to let her optimism guide her, also in her wish for a child. The fact that she has been in a wheelchair since childhood has never been a reason for her to give up on her dreams. An unusually intimate insight into a life beyond conventional family planning.

Festivals
& Awards

DOK.fest München 2021

DOK.deutsch

Diagonale Graz 2021

Diagonale Youth Jury Award for Best Newcomer Film

UK Film Festival 2021

Best Feature Documentary

Filmfestival Kitzbühel 2021

Competition

Saratov Suffering Film Festival 2021

Competition

Filmkunstfest Mecklenburg-Vorpommern 2021

Competition

Docudoc Maribor 2021

Competition

this human world - International Human Rights Film Festival 2021

Competition

See all

- Year of production
- 2021
- Genres
- Documentary
- Countries
- AUSTRIA
- Languages
- GERMAN
- Duration
- 99 mn
- Director(s)
- Lukas LADNER
- Writer(s)
- Lukas LADNER
- Producer(s)
- Arash T. RIAHI (Golden Girls Filmproduction & Filmservices), Peter DRÖSSLER (Golden Girls Filmproduction & Filmservices), Sabine GRUBER (Golden Girls Filmproduction & Filmservices), Daniel DLOUHY (Bunny Beach Filmproduction), Lukas LADNER (Bunny Beach Filmproduction)
- Synopsis
- Eva-Maria works as a secretary at the University of Teacher Education Tyrol. She is proud of this position. It was not easy to get this job. For a long time, potential employers did not grant her any responsibility. The problem was not her delicate figure or childlike appearance, but her spasticity. Since childhood, she has been dependent on a wheelchair. Her bent fingers and stiff legs overshadow her alert eyes and lively mind.
  
  But Eva-Maria has never let herself be intimidated by these old-fashioned prejudices. She knows what she wants and how to get it. Uncompromisingly, she wants to enable herself the life she has always dreamed of. One of her biggest dreams is to have a child of her own. A partner is something she is less interested in. With the help of in vitro fertilisation, she now wants to fulfil this wish for herself. A step that only a few women with disabilities have dared to take before her.
  
  Supported by her family and accompanied by personal assistants, she is tackling "the child project". The high costs and low chances of success do not stop her. Several attempts fail before she finally gets pregnant.
  
  While Eva-Maria has to look for helping hands, she approaches her family in a new way. After the birth, she temporarily wants to go back to her parents in Upper Austria. Her mother Renate is to help her in the first months after the birth. This step requires precise planning.
  
  The child remains in a breech presentation until the end. A Caesarean section has to be performed, but both child and mother survive the procedure unharmed. Finally, Eva-Maria can hold her firstborn in her arms. But the real journey has only just begun. Within the next year, Eva-Maria, Renate and the assistants have to adjust to a completely new situation. No matter how much everyone involved has prepared, things turn out quite differently. All their worlds are turned upside down.
  
  The film ends one year after the birth. Many things have been different than expected. Not all members of Eva Maria's assistance team could handle the workload as a surrogate parent. But she got her act together with her mother. After many small and big misunderstandings, they are now a perfectly coordinated team. Nevertheless, the goal remains to return to Innsbruck and lead a self-determined life – now with a child.

EVA-MARIA

Festivals& Awards

Festivals
& Awards