''Evelyn'' is a 2018 documentary directed by and starring

Orlando von Einsiedel Orlando von EinsiedelPeople of Today 2017 / Lucy Hume (born in August 1980) is a British film director. He directs mostly documentary films that investigate global social issues, and has filmed in various places around the world, including Africa ...

. The premise revolves around Orlando's own family dealing with the effects of a suicide committed 13 years earlier by Orlando's brother Evelyn, by taking a series of long walks visiting landscapes Evelyn liked to walk when he was still alive. It was released Netflix on 10 September 2019.

Cast

* Evelyn Einsiedel, posthumously *

* Gwendolyn (Gwennie) Einsiedel * Robin (Robbie) Einiedel * Harriet Einsiedel (aka ''Beta'') * Andreas von Einsiedel * Johanna Thornycroft * Leon Oldstrong * Jack Binney

Camerawork and music

For large parts of the film, the camerawork appears to require an operator walking backwards. In fact the cameraman, Franklin Dow, had created a special camera rig that sat on his back with a stabilising mechanism. A screen in front allowed him to watch what was happening as the family/cast members walked behind chatting. The musical score was mostly composed by Patrick Jonsson who had previously collaborated with von Einsiedel on Virunga and The White Helmets.Sound track from ''Evelyn''
/ref> One song was contributed by Evelyn's sister Gwendolyn Einsiedel, a musician in her own right who remembers singing almost every day during the making of the film, though very little made it onto the final cut.

Release

''Evelyn'' premiered at the 2018

London Film Festival The BFI London Film Festival is an annual film festival founded in 1957 and held in the United Kingdom, running for two weeks in October with co-operation from the British Film Institute. It screens more than 300 films, documentaries and shor ...

. It screened on

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...

on 18 May 2019 and was released from 10 September 2019 on Netflix. Reviewers described the film as a ''raw, powerful look at a family trying to make sense of suicide''. It was chosen as Best Documentary in the British Independent Film Awards of 2018.

Outreach

Some reviewers have suggested that the film might be powerful enough to save the lives of those considering suicide, GQ pointing out that suicide is now the single biggest killer of young British men and suggesting that ''Evelyn'' might help break the code of silence that tends to surround the subject. The film's website provides support links to help services including

The Samaritans Samaritans is a registered charitable organisation, charity aimed at providing emotional support to anyone in emotional distress, struggling to cope or at risk of suicide throughout the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, often through ...

and Calm and reproduces a poem from ''The Smoke Jumper''Evelyn movie website
/ref> by Nicholas Evans, best known as author of ''

The Horse Whisperer (novel) ''The Horse Whisperer'' is a 1995 novel by English author Nicholas Evans. The book was his debut novel, and gained significant success, becoming the 10th-best selling novel in the United States in 1995, selling over 15 million copies. This al ...

''.

References

External links