Embrace - DVD

Film: After the birth of her children, Australian photographer Taryn Brumfitt was simply unhappy with her body. She worked out and dieted until she was back in shape. But she didn't really feel good about it. Above all, she wondered what kind of beauty ideal she was passing on to her little daughter. And anyway: why do we let advertising, media and society tell us what the perfect body should look like? And so Taryn started to just do what she feels comfortable with. After some time, the mother of three posted a before/after photo of her nearly naked body on Facebook, which spread like wildfire on social media. Besides a lot of negative comments and downright hostility, however, she also received enormously positive feedback. Many women thanked her for her courage and felt understood by Taryn. After many overwhelming emails, it was a matter of the photographer's heart to meet some of these women. She embarked on a multi-month journey around the globe, which she captured in the documentary Embrace.

The result is a film that is infuriating, extremely moving, and at the same time very entertaining and at times amusing. When you hear what some people post behind the supposed anonymity of the internet, not caring what they are doing to another human being, you could literally howl with rage. When you then also learn what such nasty comments can cause, you really wonder what is going so incredibly wrong in our society. There is so much hate and anger on our planet, do you have to contribute to it on the lowest level - and then also just because you don't like the body of another person?

What makes this film so successful is that it shows how much quality of life can be regained when you learn to accept your body as it is. To say I am beautiful even if Heidi Klum wouldn't give you a photo. The people Taryn Brumfitt meets on her journey have all been victims of bodyshaming, but inspire you to rise above it. True to the motto: love your body, it's the only one you have!

How many people are moved by this topic, how many are looking for inspiration, as the film wants to convey, is made clear by the success of Embrace: the film ran exclusively in theaters in Germany for only one day, where, however, almost all screenings were sold out. Thus, with only one screening in various cities, the film made it into the top 10 of the cinema charts and became one of the most successful documentaries of recent months. And the film also skyrocketed to the top of the DVD charts even before its release.

One thing Embrace won't accomplish, unfortunately: There will continue to be bodyshaming, nasty comments on the internet and the media's attempts to impose a beauty ideal on society. That probably can't be changed so easily. What the documentary could do, on the other hand, is get more and more women (but also men) to not let it pressure them and learn to embrace all flaws and quirks and love themselves as they are. At the risk of sounding like a platitudinous phrase, beauty actually comes from within. Someone who conforms to an ideal and is labeled beautiful by society can still be a truly ugly person. And vice versa. Bright eyes and a confident smile can be so immensely attractive. If the film succeeds in conveying that, Embrace is not only an entertaining documentary, but also an immensely important one. Absolutely worth watching!

Image + Sound: The audiovisuals are on a good level for a documentary. The picture is absolutely clean, the overall sharpness and also the coloration convince all along the line. The sound, which is in Dolby Digital 5.1, is quite unspectacular, but for the fact that its main task is to reproduce the conversations and off-commentaries well understandable, its mixing has turned out more than satisfactory. Good.

Extras: As a bonus, the DVD has interviews with Taryn Brumfitt (approx. 8:01 min.) and Nora Tschirner (approx. 9:54 min.), as well as eight additional scenes (approx. 12 min.) to offer. A good addition to the main film and therefore worth seeing.

Conclusion: Embrace is an entertaining, yet extremely moving and very important documentary about supposed ideals of beauty and the often unhealthy pursuit of the perfect body. It's a film that is as important as it is entertaining. The DVD presents the documentary in a technically well-executed manner. The bonus material has some worth seeing additions to the main film to offer. For this there is clearly a: Absolutely recommended!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp