Wetlands

Director: David Wnendt
Screenwriters: Claus Falkenberg, David Wnendt

Institute History

  • 2014 Sundance Film Festival

Description

Bodily fluid–obsessed teenager Helen describes herself as a living pussy hygiene experiment. After an intimate shaving accident, she ends up stuck in the hospital, where she skateboards through the halls and reminisces about her culinary masturbation experiments, the seductive powers of her unwashed scent, and used-tampon swapping with her equally uninhibited best friend, Corinna. All the while, she charms a handsome male nurse with her nasty sex talk and schemes to reunite her mismatched parents.

Like its protagonist, Wetlands expresses a profound distaste for following the rules and an exuberant playfulness, making this adaptation of Charlotte Roche’s novel a journey that is as joyful as it is raunchy. Carla Juri tempers her character’s bold sexual confidence with an underlying sweetness and sincerity, while director David Wnendt maintains a tone of acceptance and affection for Helen and her provocative antics. Wetlands asserts, as Helen does, that repulsive is nothing more than the new sexy.

— Heidi Zwicker

Screening Details

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