Olivia Oil is an independent, strong and intelligent woman and this is very important to her. When she comes across the sailor Popeye and his rugged charms, she feels immediately attracted and is flattered that her love is reciprocated. Olivia makes great efforts to ensure the success of this relationship: She supports Popeye’s artistic projects – even if his screenplay never makes it beyond the first two pages. Although Olivia is very happy to be part of a couple, quite a few imbalances become apparent. The man with the appetite for spinach is nice and gentle, but he doesn’t read Olivia’s novels and seems to prefer seeing his own reflection in the mirror to seeing Olivia.
Sivan Ben Yishai borrows the well-known cartoon characters for her argumentative essay on love, relationships and passed-down chauvinist patterns that sneak into the allegedly enlightened relationships of modern feminists. With ruthless precision, she dissects the intimate details of an attempt at love and proves once more that the private has always been political.
Director Julia Wissert invites us to ask how emancipated our desires and emotions really are. Why is Olivia’s longing to be loved in conflict with the need for independence and the search for a liberated female lust? Can there be surrender without self-sacrifice? And what would it look like?