Peacock 2024
Who are you?
Who are you?
I think that’s the most important question this film asks. What makes us who we are — in a world where you can buy and have almost anything, yet still not know who you truly are or whether your relationships carry any authenticity?
It’s a problem we all struggle with. We live surrounded by so many social norms and expectations that we lose track of what we really feel. Consciously or not, we copy the behaviors of our family and those close to us, instead of listening inward.
The film also touches another sensitive chord: even when we achieve something, we keep trying to please others. Always more, always further. Matthias is the master of this — you can rent him as a “son,” a “partner,” or whoever else you need. We hire him so that someone can be proud of us, or so we can feel part of a group. But looking at him, it’s hard not to ask: don’t we all do the same? How much of us is real, and how much is a script written by others?
I was especially struck by the recurring theme of abstract art — shown so often, so detached from reality, that you almost wonder if it can still be called art. Bernhard Wenger builds a satire of modern society, where we’ve seen and experienced so much that only absurdity and abstraction have the power to move us. At the same time, he reminds us how deeply we crave a simple gesture of closeness — even if it’s staged.
There’s also the theme of friendship in business. The moment when Matthias’s project-partner “friend” pushes him to keep working despite exhaustion, because “this client is key,” felt familiar. Who hasn’t lived through that in a startup?
The visual layer also deserves attention: sparse, minimalist, yet perfectly capturing the characters’ sense of being lost. The emptiness of the frames becomes a metaphor for inner emptiness, where each of us searches for an anchor. And Matthias’s house — I’ll admit, I’d move in tomorrow.
Who is it for?
This is a film for those who like cinema that provokes questions instead of giving easy answers. For viewers curious about satire on modern society, and for anyone who sometimes wonders how much of their own life is authentic, and how much is just a role assigned by others.
Final note
This is not a film that offers simple solutions. Instead, it holds up a mirror and asks: are you truly yourself, or just a role someone else has written for you?
And finally, though I know this has become something of a recurring question on my blog: Who are you?
And why do you crave validation so much — even from people for whom you’d need to rent your own “Matthias”?
