Mad Heidi (5 Stars)

Who says that trash films can't be good? The title alone tells us the film is trash. In case there's any doubt, the trailer shows us that it isn't a film meant to be taken seriously. And yet, when the film begins it pompously thrusts itself at the viewer, pretending to be a big budget blockbuster. There's just enough gratuitous nudity and over-the-top gore to remind the viewer that it's an exploitation film. More accurately, it's a swissploitation film, as the trailer proudly announces.

The film takes place in Switzerland in the twentieth year of a dictatorship. President Meili has a background as a man who makes cheese. What's the word for that? Is he a cheesemaker? He passes a law that everyone in the country has to eat Meili's Cheese. Note the capital letters. Furthermore, anyone who's lactose intolerant is executed as an enemy of the state.

The film follows a farmer's daughter called Adelheid, nicknamed Heidi. No, she isn't lactose intolerant. She's in love with a man who makes goat cheese as an alternative to Meili's Cheese. Illegally, of course. His cheese is traded for high sums as if it's some sort of drug. But the Swiss police find him and kill him. When Heidi protests, she's arrested.

There's a touch of feminism in the film. President Meili calls Switzerland a fatherland, but those who rebel against him call it a motherland. Heidi escapes from the prison and takes refuge in a cabin in the mountains. She meets the spirit of Helvetia, and she's trained to be a fighter by warrior nuns. She doesn't need guns, she fights best with traditional Swiss weapons. She hikes to the capital to challenge President Meili. She's fighting for freedom, the motherland and the right to eat whatever sort of cheese you like.

I've checked reviews, and it's a film that divides people. You either love it or you hate it.

I love it. It's an ambitious mini-masterpiece.