Edén (2022 film)

Edén is a 2022 Spanish psychological drama film directed and written by Estefanía Cortés which stars Charlotte Vega alongside Marta Nieto, Ramón Barea, and Israel Elejalde.

Plot
A young woman (Marina) moves to a remote centre run by a clandestine company set to commit suicide. There she meets three other people with different backgrounds (Lidia, Félix, and Victor).

Production
Edén is a Montreux Entertainment, La Caña Brothers, La Colmena and El Edén AIE production, with participation of TVE and Aragón Televisión. It was fully shot in Aragon from October to November 2021, including the Baths of Panticosa in the province of Huesca and outdoor locations in the Pyrenees mountains.

Release
The film had its world premiere in the 'Meeting Point' section of the 67th Valladolid International Film Festival (Seminci) on 24 October 2022. Distributed by Syldavia, it was theatrically released in Spain on 28 October 2022.

Reception
Manuel J. Lombardo of Diario de Sevilla rated the film 2 out of 5 stars, considering that the film—a "flawed" attempt to either open a debate or reflect on euthanasia—ends up looking too much at its own navel and "those of creatures that, with the exception of the one played by Ramón Barea, look like laboratory robots in a sad, old-fashioned existentialist theatre performance".

Mikel G. Gurpegui of El Correo rated the film 1 out of 5 stars, underscoring how "the atmosphere created is not enough, some sequences border on the ridiculous and morbidity wins the battle against depth", with the more the protagonists talk, the more feigned it all sounds.

David Pardillos of Cinemanía rated the film 3 out of 5 stars, considering that even if the mise-en-scene could be too rough, the attempt to confront ourselves with such an important issue is laudable.