MAYA DARDEL: A Difficult Film About A Difficult Woman

Maya Dardel gets straight into it, and so I will too.

Maya Dardel (Lena Olin), is an accomplished writer in her late middle-age. Though she has experienced tremendous success in her time, it has been decades since she’s produced anything she’s been proud of. Maya announces on a phone call to NPR that she plans to end her life, but before that, she intends to find a male writer to become her heir, inherit her money, and safeguard her work for posterity.

Many of the candidates that Maya meets are obviously unsuitable – bad writers, or men who are clearly just their for the money, rather than having any feeling for Maya’s work. She soon narrows the field down to two who are complete opposites. They are Paul (Alexander Koch), a c*cksure writer with intimidating confidence, and Ansel (Nathan Keyes), a more poetic soul, and the only candidate who tries to persuade Maya not to kill herself. Through vigorous philosophical discussion, Maya decides who the best person to protect her life’s work will be.

Aggressively Unlikeable

One of the most interesting things about Maya Dardel is how little it cares about inviting the audience in. No one in the film is particularly likable (many are aggressively unlikeable), the concept is uncomfortable, and the dialogue often farcically highfalutin. You get the impression that co-directors Zachary Colter and Magdalena Zyzak don’t particularly care if you enjoy their film or not.

There’s something commendable about first-time directors who have the confidence to do that. From the very first scene, Maya Dardel tries to push you away. One of the first things we see Maya say is that she isn’t interested in a female heir because she doesn’t like women’s writing. She says it so unashamedly, without desire to provoke, but simply stating what is (for her) a fact. It’s emblematic of the film’s general ‘take it or leave it’ attitude, which during the movie’s best moments, make it absolutely magnetic.

And yet, unsurprisingly, Maya Dardel‘s lack of care for its audience means the film is often impenetrable, particularly in the first half, before the field of candidates has been whittled down to two. In the first half, the film rarely strays from Maya’s house, which adds a discomforting claustrophobia to the proceedings. There is nothing to look at, and so you must listen, and boy do these men waffle on. To give you a taste of this ludicrously pretentious dialogue, one of the men states, “Negation positively is negation, but only within a conceptual system.” What? Though Maya acerbically pokes through that bit of pretension, plenty of similar lines fly by unnoticed. Much of the film is leaden with this kind of ‘clever’ dialogue, and it makes entire scenes painful to sit through.

Then there’s the overall concept. It’s certainly an eye-catching conceit- successful writer vows to commit suicide, men battle it out to become her heir. However what this actually means, this act of self-murder for very little reason, isn’t explored in enough detail, and the resolution is not satisfying. This film and its heroine are so self assured, that it is probable that Colter and Zyzak were not as interested in considering the act so much as the woman. Still, for a work so rigorously thoughtful, it seems an oversight to not fully delve into the realities of what Maya is intending to do.

Lena Olin

Whilst Maya Dardel makes plenty of missteps, the one factor that never errs is its star, Lena Olin.

Maya is such a difficult character. From her early declaration of distaste for women writers, to the utter disdain with which she treats many of the men who come to visit, she is at best brusque, and at worst cruel. As part of the ‘interviews’ she has with the candidates, she gets them to perform oral sex on her. In the film’s later stages, Maya forces Ansel to phone up his mother and be nasty, whilst she listens eagerly, her ear to the phone. She has moments of such viciousness, that she is sometimes frightening to watch.

Despite all the awful things that she does, you never really hate Maya. This is thanks to Olin. She carries herself with such elegance and self-possession, spending much of her time draped over sofas, as if everywhere she sits is a throne, and she is queen of all she surveys. Her imperious glare is wonderful. This poise is not permanent though; indeed, Olin is at her best when the mask slips. When a terrible action by Paul takes her by surprise, or when she’s on her own, contemplating her life and her loneliness. Olin inhabits this complicated woman, portraying all her conflicting traits with ferocity and empathy. She is truly majestic.

The fact that Maya Dardel provides such a complex role for a woman in her sixties in the first place is fantastic. It is shamefully rare, once a woman gets past forty (let alone sixty), to see them in a movie in any role other than wife or mother; a loving supporter, but off to the side. Maya is seen in her own light, it is never refracted through anyone else. She has all the agency here, every inch of the power. That she gets to retain all that whilst remaining such a difficult woman, and never having her sharp edges softened, is nothing short of miraculous.

Maya Dardel: In Conclusion

Maya Dardel is a hard film to like, and purposefully so. Between the ostentatiously academic dialogue, the spiky lead character, and the questionable concept, it’s easy to imagine many being repelled rather than entranced.

Whilst it has many problems, Maya Dardel is a fascinating film, if not an enjoyable one. This is largely down to the glorious lead performance from Lena Olin, who navigates her way around a tricky character with elegance and verve. And the very fact of such a meaty role for a woman in her sixties is something that should be celebrated.

This prickly, contentious film knows with absolute certainty what it is, and that too is worth cheering. There are missteps, sure. But you get the real sense that Zachary Colter and Magdalena Zyzek have made exactly the movie that they wanted to make. However you feel about Maya Dardel, you have to admire them for that.

Have you seen Maya Dardel? What did you think? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below!

Maya Dardel will be released in the US on October 27th. For all international release dates, see here.