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Eden, the recent Ron Howard film, marks his return to directing a survival thriller after the 2022 film Thirteen Lives.
The film, starring Vanessa Kirby, Jude Law, Ana de Armas, Daniel Brühl, and Sydney Sweeney, follows a group of people who retreat to a remote island after the world they have been living in doesn't feel safe and secure.
They all hope to start a new life away from the burdens present in the world outside. So, they travel to a place in the middle of nowhere to see if they can find utopia. What could have been a fresh start becomes their worst nightmare as they turn against each other, being left in charge of their primal devices without a 'civilized' way of survival.
Ron Howard, who also penned the film's story, hopes to depict the lengths to which people would go to ensure their needs. Instead, the peace they seek ends up unleashing their inner evils, ready to latch onto any source of power or domination they can find. Howard sets it in a historical period, which may lead one to ask if it is based on a true story.
The trailers, released by Vertical, had already revealed that Eden is inspired by an incredible true story. It is based on the actual events known as the "Galapagos Affair," about a group of European colonists who decided to settle on Floreana Island in the Ecuadorian Galapagos in the early 20th century.
Howard is not the only one drawn to this chaotic story, as it turns out, Abbot Kohler, an American author, also used it as a reference for her 2024 novel, Eden Undone.
What's the true story behind Ron Howard's Eden?
As the film reveals, Dr. Friedrich Ritter (Jude Law) shows up on Floreana Island with his partner, Dore Strauch (Vanessa Kirby). Ritter was driven by his ascetic beliefs as he hoped to lead a life without material temptations. Strauch, said to be one of his patients, became his lover and joined him on this journey, while suffering from multiple sclerosis.
Later, their utopic existence became public knowledge through a news article, leading more people to run away from their usual lives. That's how Heinz Wittmer (Daniel Brühl), a World War I veteran, showed up on the island with his second wife, Margret (Sydney Sweeney), to raise their children away from the troubles of the outside world.
TIME Magazine cites Wittmer's fear of potential political persecution, which may have led him to flee his native land in Germany after the Nazis assumed power against his political party. After him, Baroness Eloise Bosquet de Wagner Wehrhorn (Ana de Armas) showed up there with her two lovers, Robert Phillipson (Toby Wallace) and Rudolph Lorenz (Felix Kammerer).
Unlike others who wanted to stay away from civilization, Baroness wanted to bring people to the island by using it to build a luxury establishment for millionaires, as per The Guardian. However, her needs conflicted with those of others, as the Eden screenwriter Noah Pink summarized them in his conversation with The Guardian. Pink said,
“I’m boiling it down: Dr Ritter, the purpose of life is pain; Baroness, the purpose of life is pleasure; and the Wittmers, the purpose of life is family. Very simple, and when you watch those three philosophies collide, that’s where the fun happens.”
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Ron Howard named his film Eden, since the place was considered a new world at the time, with Ritter and Strauch doubling as Adam and Eve. However, their haven turned into hell as the conflicts led Baroness to mysteriously disappear with one of her lovers, leading to theories of foul play.
Ritter died shortly after from food poisoning, claimed to be Strauch's doing, as per the Guardian. Later, Strauch left the island and died in 1943 after penning her account, followed by the one written by Margret Wittmer, who died on the island at the age of 95 in 2000.
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