MY WONDERFUL WANDA
This film from Switzerland was a surprise delight for me. I loved every minute of it.
Single mother Wanda leaves her 2 children with her parents to work for 3 months as the live-in caretaker for a wealthy Swiss businessman. 70 year old Josef is pretty much bed-ridden, recovering from a recent stroke. His wife and adult son also live in their beautiful lavish lakeside villa, but leave Wanda to tend to Josef’s every need. These ‘needs’ eventually include Wanda climbing astride the rich old bugger to satisfy his sexual urges. Wanda does this because the large amount of extra cash that Josef gives her will enable her to return to Poland and stay there and support her two boys.
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Everything seems to be going swimmingly until Wanda discovers that she’s pregnant by Josef. Well now the shit really hits the fan, and the family goes all into a whirl and a swirl. Josef’s childless daughter and her lawyer husband show up and various proposals and solutions are bandied about. Enough said here; you need to see how the rest of the plot unfolds. Although in places, this is very much a drama, it also has a lot of great comedic moments. There is very definitely some satirical commentary here on the lives of the ‘haves’ versus that of the ‘have nots’. I was reminded of the class discrimination in last year’s excellent Best Picture PARASITE; a VIFF 2019 audience fave.
Make sure that you don’t miss WANDA at the festival this year!
