{"id":4967,"date":"2014-09-25T22:19:01","date_gmt":"2014-09-25T21:19:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/?p=4967"},"modified":"2014-09-27T05:57:15","modified_gmt":"2014-09-27T04:57:15","slug":"wetlands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/2014\/09\/25\/wetlands\/","title":{"rendered":"Wetlands"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"wetlands\"<\/a>
Wetlands<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n

\nDirector:<\/B> David Wnendt

\nWriters:<\/B> Claus Falkenberg, David Wnendt, Sabine Pochhammer

\nBased on the novel by:<\/B> Charlotte Roche

\nCast:<\/B> Carla Juri, Christoph Letkowski, Marlen Kruse

\nOriginal title:<\/B> Feuchtgebiete<\/i>

\nGermany 2013

\n105 mins\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

This adaptation of Charlotte Roche\u2019s notorious erotic-comic novel was hands down the funniest, punkiest film at this year\u2019s Etrange Festival. Merrily life-affirming, with life in this case meaning spunk, shit and blood, it stars the spirited Carla Juri as a wonderfully individual 18-year-old girl with a particular affection for grime, sex and bodily secretions. <\/p>\n

While she is being treated for an anal fissure in hospital, an occasion she is na\u00efvely trying to use to reunite her divorced parents, she reminisces about various episodes of her past, from her dysfunctional childhood to her various experimentations with sex and drugs. Her candid lack of inhibitions both startles and fascinates the male nurse looking after her, Robin, and they begin to grow closer.<\/p>\n

The film possesses the same charm as its heroine: the gross-out comedy \u2013 from the initial toilet scene (which recalls Trainspotting<\/i> with a female twist), to the pizza masturbation or the menstrual blood oath \u2013 is irresistible, because it is all done with such wide-eyed innocence and childlike matter-of-factness. Nothing about the body repels Helen, and even though there shouldn\u2019t be anything shocking about that, in our sanitized culture the presentation on screen of a female character\u2019s slimy adventures was enough to trigger initially slightly stunned, then boisterous laughter in the Etrange Festival crowd. <\/p>\n

Helen is a truly great creation, as embodied by Carla Juri. Playing the character with bold abandon and spontaneity, Juri is utterly convincing, naturally inhabiting the role. Endearingly full of contradictions, Helen is strong and vulnerable, dirty and innocent, tender and selfish, brave and irresponsible, poignantly poised between childhood and adulthood. But above all else she is irreducibly herself, and as such is immune to the pressures of social norms and rules, which makes spending 105 minutes in her company heartily invigorating. <\/p>\n

The only minor disappointment is a simplistic rose-coloured ending that is at odds with, and somewhat undermines, the radical singularity of the character. Admittedly the film follows \u2013 and subverts \u2013 the conventions of romantic comedy, but Helen\u2019s perspective on sex, love and femininity is so mordantly fresh that it is a shame she is forced to fit into a standard, predictable conclusion. This, however, does not detract from the overall effect of the film, which is a big blast of filthy energy.<\/p>\n

This review is part of our Etrange Festival 2014 coverage<\/a>.<\/div>\n

Virginie S\u00e9lavy<\/B><\/I> <\/p>\n

Watch the trailer:<\/b> <\/p>\n