# Wetlands (2013 film)
**Wetlands** (German: *Feuchtgebiete*) is a 2013 German comedy-drama directed by David Wnendt, adapted from Charlotte Roche's bestselling and controversial 2008 debut novel of the same name. It follows eighteen-year-old Helen Memel (Carla Juri), who rejects conventional hygiene, is hospitalized after a shaving accident causes an anal fissure, and uses her hospital stay to try to reunite her divorced parents.[1](https://www.filmportal.de/film/feuchtgebiete_c6a4c90f0f974a3d829c15b095ceef8f) • [2](https://strandreleasing.com/films/wetlands-2/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Original title | *Feuchtgebiete* (working title: *Memelland*); English title *Wetlands*[1](https://www.filmportal.de/film/feuchtgebiete_c6a4c90f0f974a3d829c15b095ceef8f) |
| Director / source | David Wnendt; based on Charlotte Roche's 2008 novel[3](https://www.the-match-factory.com/catalogue/films/wetlands.html) |
| Lead cast | Carla Juri (Helen Memel), Christoph Letkowski (Robin), Marlen Kruse (Corinna), Meret Becker (mother), Axel Milberg (father)[1](https://www.filmportal.de/film/feuchtgebiete_c6a4c90f0f974a3d829c15b095ceef8f) |
| Production | Rommel Film with ZDF; producer Peter Rommel; shot 24 September to 16 November 2012 in Berlin and Mallorca over 37 days[4](https://www.crew-united.com/en/Wetlands__165942.html) |
| Release | German theatrical release 22 August 2013, rated FSK 16; US limited release 5 September 2014 (Strand Releasing)[1](https://www.filmportal.de/film/feuchtgebiete_c6a4c90f0f974a3d829c15b095ceef8f) • [5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/wetlands_2014) |
| Runtime | 109 minutes (German version); 105 minutes in the international/25 fps version[6](https://www.filmdienst.de/film/details/542020/feuchtgebiete) |
| Reception | 92% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer from 59 reviews; about 945,000 German admissions by December 2013[5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/wetlands_2014) • [1](https://www.filmportal.de/film/feuchtgebiete_c6a4c90f0f974a3d829c15b095ceef8f) |
## Spoilers
### Plot and tone
Helen Memel describes herself as a living hygiene experiment: she rarely washes, sits on filthy public toilet seats, and catalogs which vegetables provide the deepest erotic satisfaction.[2](https://strandreleasing.com/films/wetlands-2/) • [7](https://time.com/3273170/wetlands-movie-review/) After an intimate shaving accident leaves her bleeding from an anal fissure, she is admitted to a hospital for surgery. Bedridden, she treats the stay as an opportunity to reconcile her divorced parents, an engineer father (Axel Milberg) who is often absent and a stern, cleanliness-obsessed mother (Meret Becker), while forming a bond with the male nurse Robin (Christoph Letkowski).[2](https://strandreleasing.com/films/wetlands-2/) • [7](https://time.com/3273170/wetlands-movie-review/)
The film opens with a deceptive close-up that looks like a bare backside but is Helen's calf as she skateboards across Berlin, and it uses comic-surreal devices throughout: microscopic animation inside a hair follicle, split screens, underwater hallucinations, and a slow-motion pizza scene set to the "Blue Danube Waltz".[7](https://time.com/3273170/wetlands-movie-review/) Critics grouped its style with [Danny Boyle](https://www.edgepedia.org/danny-boyle)'s *Trainspotting*; the producer had explicitly described the goal as a mixture of *[9 Songs](https://www.edgepedia.org/9-songs)* and *Trainspotting*.[7](https://time.com/3273170/wetlands-movie-review/) • [8](https://silverscreenriot.com/566-david-wnendt-talks-stunning-wetlands/)
## Production
Wnendt, whose debut feature *Combat Girls* (*Kriegerin*, 2011) had dealt with neo-Nazi youth, made *Wetlands* his second feature.[9](https://www.frameline.org/films/frameline38/wetlands) The novel's success, more than 2.5 million copies sold, made an adaptation likely, and the shoot was kept secret under the code name "Memelland".[10](https://www.tagesspiegel.de/berlin/feuchtgebiete-in-berlin-abgedreht-2237254.html) Filming ran 37 days from 24 September to 16 November 2012 in Berlin and on Mallorca.[4](https://www.crew-united.com/en/Wetlands__165942.html) The screenplay is credited to Claus Falkenberg and David Wnendt, with Sabine Pochhammer as co-writer and Charlotte Roche as the literary source; Roche approved the adaptation, including scenes the filmmakers invented or expanded from single lines of the book.[3](https://www.the-match-factory.com/catalogue/films/wetlands.html) • [8](https://silverscreenriot.com/566-david-wnendt-talks-stunning-wetlands/)
Jakub Bejnarowicz shot the film (with Andrés Lizana Prado on underwater photography), Enis Rotthoff composed the music, and Andreas Wodraschke edited.[1](https://www.filmportal.de/film/feuchtgebiete_c6a4c90f0f974a3d829c15b095ceef8f) Financing included Medienboard Berlin-[Brandenburg](https://www.edgepedia.org/brandenburg) support of 36,000 euros for development and 400,000 euros for production, plus DFFF and FFA funding.[10](https://www.tagesspiegel.de/berlin/feuchtgebiete-in-berlin-abgedreht-2237254.html) • [4](https://www.crew-united.com/en/Wetlands__165942.html)
## Release and reception
The film premiered in the Locarno festival competition in 2013 and opened in German cinemas on 22 August 2013, distributed by Majestic Filmverleih.[11](https://www.critic.de/film/feuchtgebiete-5388/) • [1](https://www.filmportal.de/film/feuchtgebiete_c6a4c90f0f974a3d829c15b095ceef8f) It drew roughly 945,000 German admissions by December 2013.[1](https://www.filmportal.de/film/feuchtgebiete_c6a4c90f0f974a3d829c15b095ceef8f) Strand Releasing gave it a limited US release on 5 September 2014, where it grossed $59.4 thousand.[5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/wetlands_2014)
Reviewers consistently separated the film's shock content from its craft. The Rotten Tomatoes critics consensus holds that the film "transcends its shock value with sweetness, heart, and subversive wit".[5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/wetlands_2014) Time's reviewer called it "the year's most outrageously vivacious movie" and singled out Juri, then a 29-year-old Swiss actress, for a star-making performance.[7](https://time.com/3273170/wetlands-movie-review/) Variety's Scott Foundas wrote that the film might have landed as empty shock value had Helen not been such an engaging character and Juri so commanding in the role.[12](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2524674/criticreviews/) German criticism was similarly divided between revulsion and admiration; cinema.de called it a congenial, rousingly filmed adaptation of the "scandal book".[13](https://www.cinema.de/film/feuchtgebiete%2C5673531.html)
## The source novel
Charlotte Roche, a former VIVA television presenter, published *Feuchtgebiete* in 2008; it stayed at the top of the *Spiegel* bestseller list for 20 weeks and sold more than 2.5 million copies.[10](https://www.tagesspiegel.de/berlin/feuchtgebiete-in-berlin-abgedreht-2237254.html) • [14](https://www.kino.de/film/feuchtgebiete-2013/) English-language critics were skeptical about the book's supposed radicalism, some pointing out that its taboo-breaking provocations revisited terrain already mapped in feminist writing.[15](https://www.filmcomment.com/film-of-the-week-wetlands/) Wnendt's adaptation shifts the novel's retrospective narration into a present-tense hospital story with flashbacks, a perspective change he described as his own signature on the material.[16](https://www.filmportal.de/node/1199014/material/1246230)
## References
1. [Feuchtgebiete, filmportal.de](https://www.filmportal.de/film/feuchtgebiete_c6a4c90f0f974a3d829c15b095ceef8f)
2. [Wetlands, Strand Releasing](https://strandreleasing.com/films/wetlands-2/)
3. [Wetlands, The Match Factory](https://www.the-match-factory.com/catalogue/films/wetlands.html)
4. [Wetlands, Crew United](https://www.crew-united.com/en/Wetlands__165942.html)
5. [Wetlands, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/wetlands_2014)
6. [Feuchtgebiete, Filmdienst](https://www.filmdienst.de/film/details/542020/feuchtgebiete)
7. [REVIEW: Wetlands: A Schmutzy Comedy With an Adorable New Star, Time](https://time.com/3273170/wetlands-movie-review/)
8. [David Wnendt Talks Stunning WETLANDS, Silver Screen Riot](https://silverscreenriot.com/566-david-wnendt-talks-stunning-wetlands/)
9. [Wetlands, Frameline38](https://www.frameline.org/films/frameline38/wetlands)
10. [Kinostart im Jahr 2013: "Feuchtgebiete" in Berlin abgedreht, Der Tagesspiegel](https://www.tagesspiegel.de/berlin/feuchtgebiete-in-berlin-abgedreht-2237254.html)
11. [Feuchtgebiete, critic.de](https://www.critic.de/film/feuchtgebiete-5388/)
12. [Wetlands (2013) critic reviews, Metacritic via IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2524674/criticreviews/)
13. [Feuchtgebiete (2013), cinema.de](https://www.cinema.de/film/feuchtgebiete%2C5673531.html)
14. [Feuchtgebiete, Kino.de](https://www.kino.de/film/feuchtgebiete-2013/)
15. [Film of the Week: Wetlands, Film Comment](https://www.filmcomment.com/film-of-the-week-wetlands/)
16. [A confident stylistic Signature, German Films Quarterly 4/2013 via filmportal.de](https://www.filmportal.de/node/1199014/material/1246230)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Comedy and romantic films (individual works) › Comedies of 2013 to 2014 › Titles J to W*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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