Zones Humides

Wetlands or "Feuchtegbiete" as it is called in Germany is an adaptation from the Bestselling Novel by German Author and Ex VIVA Host Charlotte Roche! The Book was quit a scandal when it first came out due to it's honest and unadorned description of female Sexuality. Due to it's graphic sexual contend and detailed description of all kind of Taboo Themes and large numbers of Body fluids the book was deemed unfilmable. But, as it is the case with most unfilmable Books, they had to make a movie! Having never read the Book and judging from all i heard about it, i was quit surprised when i saw the Movie! The tone was much lighter then i had expected! While the Film is quit open and explicit with it's depiction of Sex, Body hygiene and social taboos like hemorrhoids, i never felt it to be repulsive or shocking. The Movie is very funny and plays mostly for laughs. Yet, by taking the Characters and there Situations seriously it also gives it some unexpected depth! Special Mention most go to Carla Juri who brings a natural charm to her Part and proofs that she can carry a movie with ease! I'm very interested to see where her career will take her in the years to come.

While certainly not for everybody i am convinced, that many people will have a good time watching this movie. Women especially should be able to identify with the lead character and will recognise many of the problems and challenges she faces throughout the Film.

Definitely one of the better Movies that have come out of Germany for quit some time!

I came across this movie randomly as a listing on the web and decided I was going to watch it on Netflix. Considering the fact I have never watched a German movie, I started watching this with the idea that things going on in the movie were normal to Germans. I found that absurd and disgusting.

I'll later come to understand that it is the Director David Wnendt who is a bit sick, not Germany. The film then started to make sense from that perspective. A dark humor, an escape from reality and the social norms of what is approved if you will. It's a coming of age movie about a girl who is somewhat discovering herself and dealing with the divorce of her parents.

The general package is good. Like many European movies I have seen, you sort of feel attached to the characters, like you are there in the movie. The editing, music choice and colors are also warm and in tune with the film.

Wetlands is the kind of movie where things like jizz-covered pizzas, anal tearings, vegetable-based masturbation, purposeful vaginal dirtying, and other taboos are thrown into our face and someone, most likely David Wnendt, wants us to accept the graphic vulgarity like we accepted There's Something About Mary or one of those eye-roll inducing Hangover films. Wetlands dares to call itself a romantic comedy, a coming-of-age story, a family drama, and a gross-out assembly line, and if it were written by someone like Seth Rogen then maybe, just maybe, it would have turned into a sh*t covered disaster. But under Wnendt's authority, it's likable, even if much of it is frustrating. It goes through stretches where it's earnest, legitimately touching, but it also has a tendency to turn around the next minute and tell us about another bodily dysfunction that we'd rather not hear about when we're eating. Part of me wishes it was dirty like a 1960s sex comedy, provocative but not overtly so. But Wetlands can be so appallingly gross that any form of realness seem to be covered in some STDs you caught from a smelly hippie down the street.

At the center of the filth is Helen Memel (Carla Juri), a sexually rambunctious 18-year-old who spends her free time exploring her body in the most disgusting ways imaginable. In the opening alone, a barefoot Helen attends an underground public bathroom so repulsive that it makes a backwoods 7-11 restroom seem pristine. And, as if things couldn't get any more nauseating, she decides to rub herself around the … oh, never mind. Just discussing it makes me shudder.

The film continues in a series of revolting events that seem more NC-17 than cutely edgy, climaxing when Helen accidentally tears her anus (yes, her anus) while hastily shaving. When she finds herself in the hospital for surgery, she cooks up a foolproof plot: as the daughter of divorced parents, she wants nothing more than to get them back together, so why not stage a reconciliation during visiting hours? To Helen, it's ingenious. To us, the thought is depressing, to say the least. But a blossoming romance with a male nurse (Christoph Letkowski) promises better things to come in a world where sexual experimentation is the only source of feeling.

Wetlands is kinda sorta scatterbrained; who knew a movie could transform from a gross-out comedy into a melancholic drama? The best parts of the film, which are (1) the last thirty-minutes and (2) the melancholic drama components, are really, really good; finally, the gags end and deal with Helen as a human instead of an icky caricature. We're given an explanation as to why she is the way she is, and what we find out is gut- punchingly sad — yet it doesn't fit. I can understand her position (ex.: does horrifying things to her body to numb the pains of reality), but I don't understand why the film has to show what she does and what she fantasizes about with such explicit detail. I guess it's meant to shock, but the film is far too well-made to merely act as an exploitation movie. Wetlands covers several genres, and they all work wonderfully; problem is, there's always a slutty cousin wandering about in the background haunting any hint of authenticity. For many films, the level of wildness in a dirty joke can be a calling card (a la American Pie's pie, There's Something About Mary's "hair gel"), but in Wetlands, a dirty joke — scratch that, a dirty image, is a major weakness.

But if you can stomach the vileness of it all, the film is more sweet than it is sickening. There are truly funny moments, and there are affecting moments too. As a coming-of-age drama, its ballsiness is refreshing. And Juri, a combination of Greta Gerwig, Run Lola Run era Franka Potente, and a young Cécile de France, may as well already be a star. With my last impression of Wetlands being that of the earlier mentioned "melancholic drama", though, it must have done something right, despite being one of the most disgusting films I've ever seen. And that's saying something, considering it travels through the microscopic world of a pubic hair within its first few minutes like it's a roller coaster ride.

I have to admit, I never read the novel this is based on. But I'm guessing the people who don't like the movie at all (which is fine), either haven't read the book or don't like the book. I'm saying this, because what you are getting here, is very close to adult films. Something people in Germany (censors that is), do not have a problem with (the movie is rated 16+).

I can only guess the movie will be NC-17 (if they rate it) in America. There are explicit images of male genitalia, a lot bare breasts (though mostly of our main female lead). With all that said, I went into the movie with the impression I wouldn't like it at all. And maybe it didn't really need all those ... (sometimes disgusting) "shots" (no pun intended) or the language. But the central story about someone looking for love and not being able to connect (because of their weird childhood, to say the least), is strangely appealing ...

This is without a doubt the most disgusting film I've ever seen. The number of scenes in the movie that make you go "OMG" are probably not countable on one or even two hands.

However, the disgusting parts are never there just to arouse disgust. It is all done with a certain amount of grace and balance, by the director but by the main actress as well. I found myself having a good laugh a large number of times.

The main actress by the way is truly awesome, beautiful and appealing, and totally fit for the part.

There is enough of a storyline to make the movie interesting besides the focus on sex and filthy things.

I really totally recommend seeing this movie.