Though The Stranger is regarded as the ultimate work of Existentialist literature, at least by high school students worldwide, it is not actually a perfect representation of the philosophy. Meursault embodies the absurd hero in many ways, such as his rejection of social norms and his epiphany about the irrationality of existence at the end of the book, but in other ways he does not. His disregard of any other person he encounters suggests that he does not align with the individualist aspect of existentialism, and he does not seem to embrace his death until the very end of the book, only the deaths of others.
Trust, despite being an obscure indie film, is, at least in my opinion, a much better depiction of existentialism. Maria is a true absurd hero. When faced with disastrous circumstances, she casts off her entire personality and all of her relationships in order to rebuild herself from the ground up. She takes a literal and blunt, but still not cynical, view on the world. Despite being a pregnant teenager thrown out of high school, she decides to educate herself and take only actions that she believes are right, refusing to buy into any relationship binaries that try to control her.
The main difference between Maria and Meursault is that while Meursault lives an entirely passive life, taking no part in his surroundings or relationships, Marie is constantly active. Meursault either accepts ideas or ignores them; Maria rejects all predefined ideas and builds her own. Marie even comes up with her own definition of love, while Meursault maintains that love doesn't matter.
I agree with this and really like this assessment of Trust and The Stranger. Meursault may live an existential life by rejecting certain social constructs but he doesn't realize what or why he is doing that until his epiphany. He kind of walks the line between a "free" life and a "normal" life because he still holds out hope for living until the very end.
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