In “Pelican Blood”, which runs on free TV this Sunday without commercials, “system blaster” meets occult horror. This is not only quite oppressive, but also becomes really controversial at the end.
With her feature film debut “Tore tanzt” from 2013, Katrin Gebbe was able to cause a stir primarily in the arthouse sector, because the disturbing martyr or redemption story literally walked in the footsteps of Lars von Trier (“Dogville”) in its mercilessness. “Pelikanblut”, which was released in German cinemas in 2020, airs today, 25 September 2022 at 11.35 p.m. on ARD, once again underlines what an exciting filmmaker Katrin Gebbe is after all.
But the best thing about today’s TV broadcast is not only that “Pelikanblut” will be shown completely unabridged, but also without commercial breaks. So you can really lose yourself in the unusual mixture of “System Sprenger” and occult horror. But if you can’t make it to see the film on TV tonight, you also have the option of conveniently switching to the Blu-ray or DVD, which are even reduced at Amazon at the moment:
A TOUGH FILM THAT CHALLENGES ITS AUDIENCE
The fact that “Pelican Blood” is also often compared to the brilliant “System Blaster” is due to the five-year-old Raya, who can no longer feel empathy or love due to an early childhood trauma – and often only knows how to communicate through extreme freak-outs. Director Katrin Gebbe, however, combines the family drama with quite a few stylistic devices of genre cinema, which leads to the little girl “sometimes even seeming like a possessed ghost-horror child or a (junior) killer from a slasher film.”
Anyone who has seen “Tore tanzt”, in which a Jesus fan almost willingly lets himself be tortured to death by an allotment family, knows that Katrin Gebbe has no inhibitions about showing extreme scenes. “Pelican Blood” is also above all an unpleasant viewing experience that often leads the audience into moral quandaries, which are described in the review as follows:
“While ‘Systemsprenger’ is so heartbreaking precisely because you cross your fingers for Benni’s (Helena Zengel) recovery every second, Gebbe leads the cinema-goers into a real temptation to deny the little girl her humanity to some extent – a challenging provocation.” In the end, this leads to a finale that can be perceived as either courageous or irresponsible. But one thing is certain: this film won’t leave you cold.
WHAT PELICAN BLOOD IS ABOUT
Wiebke (Nina Hoss) not only runs her own riding stable where, among other things, police horses are trained to keep calm in extreme situations. She also adopted Nicolina (Adelia-Constance Ocleppo), an Eastern European girl, once before – with success. Her new protégé, five-year-old Raya (Katerina Lipovska), does not make it quite so easy for her…
The girl smears the bathroom with faeces, impales dead animals and forces weaker children to play “doctor”. And while even the neurologists believe that recovery can only take place in a specialised facility, Wiebke just won’t give up. Finally, in her desperation, she even sees herself forced to resort to extreme methods…
