Pepperminta

Year: 2010
Country: SWITZERLAND, AUSTRIA
Run Time: 82 minutes

Pippi Longstocking's real first name was Pipilotta. The director of this hallucinogenic extravaganza is Pipilotti Rist, a well-known Swiss experimental video artist. PEPPERMINTA is a grown-up anarcha-feminist Pippi who dresses like a member of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. She lives in a kaleidoscope; you might say she's obsessed with color. Her world is part Pee-Wee's Playhouse, part Monty Python's Flying Circus. An outcast from the world of dreary conformists, she learned as a child to follow her own strawberry-strewn path through life. Since she's a bit lonely with only her grandmother – a talking eyeball in a mirror-encrusted jewelry box – as company, Pepperminta seeks out companions whom she can convince to see the world through rose-colored glasses. Convinced of the healing power of untamed nature, she's ready to tackle big things in the world. Like Dorothy, Pepperminta acquires odd followers as she cavorts through candy-colored landscapes, wreaking havoc on business meetings and diners in elegant restaurants. Pepperminta's merry band of bloodthirsty bohemians wraps things up with a psychedelic love-fest. It looks like they may be on to something. (In German with subtitles) –B.B.

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