{"id":46767,"date":"2026-08-15T14:26:24","date_gmt":"2026-08-15T09:26:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=46767"},"modified":"2026-08-15T14:26:24","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T09:26:24","slug":"everything-thats-wrong-with-you-helmer-on-loneliness-farcical-web","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=46767","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Everything That&#8217;s Wrong With You&#8217; Helmer on Loneliness, Farcical Web"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tRight before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the world, Slovenian director <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/t\/ursa-menart\/\" id=\"auto-tag_ursa-menart\" data-tag=\"ursa-menart\">Ur\u0161a Menart<\/a> came across a curious phenomenon on the internet: young people, mostly women, making up tragic life stories to gather the increasingly sparse attention span of their followers. Even more curiously, the director realized people would often drop everything to visit these micro-influencers. The muddled parasocial relationship between poster and follower would come to inspire \u201cEverything That\u2019s Wrong With You,\u201d having its world premiere as part of the narrative feature competition section at this year\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/t\/sarajevo-film-festival\/\" id=\"auto-tag_sarajevo-film-festival\" data-tag=\"sarajevo-film-festival\">Sarajevo Film Festival<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tThe dramedy first finds young Maru\u0161a (Anu\u0161a Kodelja) back in her home country of Slovenia after a season living in Berlin. She just lost her mother to cancer, and the grief only amplifies her sense of displacement. While aimlessly scrolling one day, Maru\u0161a comes across Alja (Klara Kuk), a nurse living in a small coastal town in Germany. She sends a first message, which quickly spirals into a fast-developing friendship that is put to the test once they finally meet in person.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201cWhat fascinated me wasn\u2019t really the aspect of people inventing these stories, but the other side, those who befriended those folks, who followed them, who traveled across continents to visit them,\u201d Menart tells <em>Variety<\/em>. \u201cThis was the first germ of the idea, but then the whole isolation of COVID and becoming a mother for the first time made me super lonely at times. It got me thinking about the human need to connect.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tThe two main characters were born out of the director\u2019s observations and \u201cinteresting people\u201d she met and read about. In the almost seven years it took to get the project off the ground, Menart worked on other films such as \u201cMy Last Year as a Loser,\u201d but continued to think about the story and work on research.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201cIn Slovenia, the production process is quite long,\u201d she notes. \u201cIt takes a while even after getting financing to secure co-producers, financing from abroad and so on. I always worried: will this theme even interest me six years from now? Because making a film is a marathon.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tLittle could Menart know that the themes of her film would only become more relevant in the years since, especially as the rapid advancement of technologies such as artificial intelligence amplified conversations around loneliness and the need for human connection. \u201cHumans are connecting more and more with machines, while on the other hand slowly realizing how important it is to spend actual time with each other.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"post-content-image \/\/  size-full alignnone \">\n<figure class=\"o-figure  lrv-u-font-family-secondary u-color-medium-grey lrv-u-border-b-1 u-border-color-light-grey-tint-two u-margin-b-150 lrv-u-max-width-100p\" style=\"width:1000px\">\n<div class=\"c-lazy-image  \">\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"c-lazy-image__img lrv-u-background-color-grey-lightest lrv-u-width-100p lrv-u-display-block lrv-u-height-auto\" src=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/themes\/pmc-variety-2020\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/VARIETY-SIZING-6.png\" alt=\"\" data-lazy-srcset=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/VARIETY-SIZING-6.png 1000w, https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/VARIETY-SIZING-6.png?resize=150,100 150w, https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/VARIETY-SIZING-6.png?resize=300,200 300w, https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/VARIETY-SIZING-6.png?resize=910,607 910w, https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/VARIETY-SIZING-6.png?resize=681,454 681w, https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/VARIETY-SIZING-6.png?resize=450,300 450w, https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/VARIETY-SIZING-6.png?resize=250,167 250w\" data-lazy-sizes=\"(min-width: 87.5rem) 1000px, (min-width: 78.75rem) 681px, (min-width: 48rem) 450px, (max-width: 48rem) 250px\" height=\"667\" width=\"1000\" decoding=\"async\"\/><\/p><\/div><figcaption class=\"c-figcaption  lrv-u-flex lrv-u-flex-direction-column lrv-u-padding-t-1 lrv-u-padding-b-1\">\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"lrv-u-color-black lrv-u-line-height-normal lrv-u-font-size-14 u-font-family-neue u-letter-spacing-007-rem u-margin-b-050\">Urs\u030ca Menart, courtesy of Rado Likon<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tAs major discussions around the male loneliness epidemic and how young men are being seduced into the dark corners of the manosphere and red-pill movements due to an increase in isolation, Menart offers a careful observation on how loneliness affects young women. \u201cEverything That\u2019s Wrong With You\u201d broaches questions on the burden of caring, the pressures of coupling up and bearing children and the hypersexualized universe of online dating.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201cI\u2019m a woman, and that\u2019s the perspective that feels like home,\u201d says the director when asked about why she decided to focus on two young women. \u201cAnd, to be honest, I think women live more interesting lives [laughs]. We have it harder, but our lives are very rich and unexamined still. We\u2019ve had wonderful films and novels in the past decades dealing with the interior lives of women, but I still feel like there is still so much that is left unexplored and so many interesting characters that still haven\u2019t been able to speak to the audience. So someone else can make a film about the male loneliness epidemic, I\u2019m all for it, but it\u2019s not going to be me [laughs].\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tMenart always knew her film would hinge on the casting of the two main actors. \u201cI wanted actors from Slovenia because language is very important to me, and that meant our pool of actors was not huge,\u201d she notes. \u201cI still wanted to do open auditions, so I urged everyone and everyone\u2019s friends to send in self-tapes to see what we would get.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tFunnily enough, the two stars sent in tapes for the opposite characters. This, the director says, made her realize that \u201cthey each brought in an aspect of their personality that maybe would be missing in the script for the character.\u201d After casting was completed, Menart spent a year working with the actors on developing their characters and adjusting the script accordingly.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tAnother key aspect of the production was finding the perfect location for Alja\u2019s home, which ended up being the small German seaside town of Heringsdorf. \u201cI was really attracted to this flat landscape, which is something we don\u2019t really have where I am from,\u201d says the director. \u201cI also wanted to have a big contrast from where Maru\u0161a comes from, which is all very steep and claustrophobic. I wanted to have this feeling that when she arrives at this other location, everything opens a bit.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201cIt was a bit of a challenge because it is a tourist town that doesn\u2019t have the infrastructure to support the making of a feature,\u201d she adds. \u201cThere was no space to park trucks, so we had to be very agile and work with smaller vans and not a lot of equipment, very minimal lights. But it actually suited me very well. It\u2019s a small story and very intimate, so I wanted to be flexible and I couldn\u2019t plan everything ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tSpeaking of intimacy, Menart wanted to work with a cinematographer with a documentary background, who \u201cwould approach this shoot as more of \u2018let\u2019s catch the actors doing something\u2019 instead of \u2018let\u2019s make the actors do something.\u2019\u201d When she met Dutch cinematographer Roy van Egmond through a producer friend, she \u201cconnected immediately.\u201d \u201cIt was important for us to have this great conversation between the camera and the actors so that the camera would enter the intimacy of this very close relationship. We felt we needed to have this little cocoon of people who really understood one another.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tAs for having the world premiere of the film in Sarajevo, Menart says she is \u201creally happy\u201d to be back at the festival after presenting \u201cEverything That\u2019s Wrong With You\u201d as part of CineLink, Sarajevo\u2019s industry arm. \u201cThe festival is like a joyful high school reunion of the whole region, and they were so supportive of the film while we were making it. It feels perfect.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201cEverything That\u2019s Wrong With You\u201d is produced by Slovenia\u2019s Vertigo in co-production with Germany\u2019s Chromosom Film, Tidewater Pictures, Serbia\u2019s Living Pictures and RTV Slovenija. It is supported by the Slovenian Film Centre, MV Filmf\u00f6rderung, Film Center Serbia, the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Serbia, Creative Europe MEDIA, the Ministry of Public Administration of the Republic of Slovenia, and Re-Act Co-Development Funding. In collaboration with Film Studio Viba Film.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Right before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the world, Slovenian director Ur\u0161a Menart came across a curious phenomenon on the internet: young people, mostly women, making up tragic life stories to gather the increasingly sparse attention span of their followers. Even more curiously, the director realized people would often drop everything to visit these micro-influencers&#8230;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":46768,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/VARIETY-SIZING-7.png?w=1000&h=563&crop=1","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pics-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46767"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46767\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/46768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}