Teresa Nvotová made several documentaries before she presented her first feature Filth. Her take of the drama unfolding in less than 90 minutes is also observing, without judging and empathy. The characters reveal themselves.
The film starts with a electroshock therapy. The next 50 minutes or so tell us, how 17-year-old Lena got there. At the beginning of the flash back Lena is an ordinary girl. Once in a while she skips classes and talks with her Róza about sex and how it feels to have an erected sticky penis in hand. They adore their math teacher Robo. Robo also looks after Lena's physically challenged brother and gives Lena extra lessons in her home. Things go wrong from here, when Robo gets physical and rapes Lena. He leaves her with the trauma. Next she is trying to commit suicide and then we meet her in a psychiatric ward. Things run fast, as Nvotová at this point is not very much interested in Lena's development. Most of the film deals with the scandalously bad state of the health system in Slovakia.
The psychiatric hospital is close to criminal neglect,the doctor in charge seems worse than nurse Ratched. What they therapy makes things worse. Lena's co-patient Iva was raped by her father, but the doctor doubts her story. Iva and Lena joke about different ways to commit suicide. When the doctor finally releases Iva, it is no longer a joke. She takes her life.
Although Lena's mother has doubts, she believes the doctor that am electric shock would benefit Lena. We finally concentrate on Lena's story. Her mother insists that she is discharged. She returns back to some kind of normality. Scumbag Robo is forced to confess his crime, but will he have to pay for it. At the end Lena rejects a boy, but we don't know if she does so because she now is an independent woman or because the scars on her soul prevent her from the commitments of a relationship.
Filth doesn't really know what it wants. The life in the psychiatric hospital are told in some detail. Nvotová uses real in-mates from psychiatric hospitals who play versions of themselves and real actors. Those scenes are directed very skillfully. The story of Lena is told in a rather sloppy way, more like "Last Time on Filthy" than showing the development, the inner conflicts and the final resolution. Now it is more like a two in one film.
6/10
