That last compulsion is connected with Helen’s insistence that her neglectful and mentally disturbed mother once cut off her daughter’s eyelashes in a fit of jealousy. Indeed, as the story progresses (and is drawn out, as Helen intentionally—and excruciatingly—prolongs her stay in the hospital), we learn that our protagonist’s innumerable sexual and bodily quirks are the result of trauma from her parents’ divorce. This, of course, makes the actual theme of Wetlands—despite surface content that I sincerely promise will shock the unshockable—itself quite conservative and tame.
The film is one that even the sexually laid-back Germans watch with half-covered eyes (“Nothing was spared,” said one of my German friends who’s seen it). So I’ll be interested to see how American audiences—stereotypically both prudish and hygiene-obsessed—receive it. I’m guessing reactions will be similar to the one Adam B. Vary, senior film reporter for BuzzFeed, had after the Sundance screening: He proclaimed it not only “NSFW” (duh), but also “WTF.”