Academy Award winner Olivia Colman has turned her talents towards the bizarre and carnal in Wicker, an offbeat folk-horror comedy pairing the English star with Swedish actor Alexander Skarsgård.
An unconventional medieval romance
The feature, which takes the familiar, brooding contours of rustic period cinema and subverts them into an erotic adult fable, sees Colman portray a downcast fisherwoman living on the cold margins of village society. Skarsgård features as her bespoke companion: a living man fashioned entirely out of woven wicker, crafted with the singular imperative of satisfying her deepest physical, emotional, and sensual needs.
Discussing the venture in an interview, Colman admitted that the peculiar concept immediately grabbed her attention upon first reading. As Guardian Australia Culture reported, the British star was unreserved about her enthusiasm for the unabashedly carnal script, remarking: “I saw the script and went: oooh!”
From leather subversion to woven desire
The premise follows on from a run of daring and subversive character work for Skarsgård. Colman was quick to link the production to the actor’s previous turn in the acclaimed British indie project Pillion, which featured Skarsgård as an imposing, leather-clad motorcycle enthusiast locked in a complex power dynamic with a timid traffic warden played by Harry Melling.
“I fucking loved Pillion so much!” Colman enthusiastically told the publication, reflecting on her co-star’s previous work with characteristic candour. “And when they kissed at the end … Aww.”
Where Pillion examined urban sexual neuroses, Wicker repositions Skarsgård’s magnetic screen presence into the realm of folkloric fantasy. Colman reportedly drew upon the intricate textures of modern partnership and her own marriage to ground the film's carnal premise, transforming an absurd conceit into a meditation on human vulnerability.
An eccentric ensemble in Budapest
Filmed against moody European backdrops in Budapest, the production brings together a distinguished stable of British talent to populate its fictional medieval hamlet. Rather than pursuing austere historical verisimilitude, the script revels in sharp tonal contradictions, oscillating playfully between stiff period rhetoric and unapologetic modern profanities.
Guardian Australia Culture reported that the dialogue moves briskly between arch archaic courtesies, such as “Happy to transact with you”, and blunt vernacular dismissals like “I’d better fuck off”.
Rounding out the village community is a host of celebrated comic and dramatic character actors. Phil Daniels appears as an unsettling and leering local butcher, while veteran performer Richard E Grant takes on the role of an utterly hopeless physician tasked with tending to the eccentric villagers.
Finding tenderness amid the gothic absurd
The resulting production offers cinema audiences a singular mixture of earthy gothic melodrama and biting social satire. Rather than treating its titular wicker construct purely as an instrument of horror, the narrative focuses on the quiet reclamation of female pleasure and dignity amid provincial cruelty.
In pairing seasoned character acting with high-concept romantic absurdity, Wicker signals an audacious creative chapter for its two leads, proving that even the most outlandish folkloric premise can yield poignant truths about companionship.
