Wicker
A romantic fable about a headstrong, single fisherwoman (Olivia Colman) who commissions the ideal husband from a basket weaver. This wicker man (Alexander Skarsgård) turns out to be even better than she could ever have dared to dream.
On the outskirts of a medieval fishing village lives a fisherman’s wife. She is free-spirited and reeks of fish, making her the target of everyone’s jokes. Not a single man considers her a suitable wife, but she couldn’t care less: she has little interest in the local marriage traditions. Instead, she asks the basket weaver to weave her a husband out of willow twigs.
When, miraculously, the willow man comes to life, he proves to be courteous, exceptionally caring and a tireless lover. Compared to him, the other men in the village are mere weaklings, a fact that does not escape their wives’ notice. For the first time, the wives are jealous of the fisherman’s wife, while the men feel threatened. It descends into chaos that completely turns the social order of the close-knit, patriarchal community on its head.
In Wicker, Wilson and Fischer delightfully satirise narrow-mindedness, social exclusion and the pressure to conform, with black humour, risqué jokes and a touch of Monty Python. Colman and Skarsgård are irresistibly odd and charming as this unlikely couple
Written by EK