Johan Cronje’s Wonderlus is a realistic, smart romantic film from South Africa that makes us question our opinions about love, marriage, happily-ever-after endings. A wedding goes awry and the morning after, friends and foes need to piece together the puzzle of the night before. In search of answers, a groom needs to pursue the love of his life, a bride has to untangle herself from the past and a waitress tries to escape the present.
See “Wonderlus” on Saturday Feb 16 @1:00pm at Cinema Village (22 East 12th Street) as part of New York City’s 8th Annual Winter Film Awards International Film Festival.
Who says romantic melodramas have died? We’ve seen so many brilliant examples of them staged on wedding days, such as: Muriel’s Wedding, My Best Friend’s Wedding and My Big Fat Greek Wedding. The stories that are centered around the weddings always attract the attention of the audiences because everyone (even if they’re scared or excited about the word ‘marriage”), eventually wonders what could be happening on their own special day.
‘Wonderlus’, which is translated as “desire for wonder”, presents us with a totally original example of the genre by its twists, a remarkable story-telling technique which goes back and forth showing the different perspectives of multiple characters. The story is told in three chapters: “Before the Ceremony”, “Wedding night” and “Night after”. By jumping back and forth between the chapters, dramatic pressure increases and question arise. 
The doubts, lies, secrets and overall mystery captivate your attention to learn more about the characters and what’s going to happen next.
Director and screenplay writer Johan Cronje challenges our ideas around romantic love. Wonderlus it is not only a story about the relationship of the groom and bride; it also tells us the story of the bridesmaids, the best men and the waitress who is fighting against her inner demons. The characters are influenced by people from his life and some of the scenes are based on his own experiences which makes the story more realistic and true. Starting with only dialogue, interesting characters and compelling situations, it took five years for him to finish the script.
This charming low-budget character-driven story was shot in 23 days, and has already won four awards from international film festivals. The handheld shooting technique serves well to show the natural actions and movements of the actors and perfectly catches the details from different angles. Everyone involved in this had a lot of talent and used it well.
The unconventional plot, distinctive language, surprising development and unpredictable ending are strong elements of the movie. Characters come to life from within, just with dialogue, their perspective on life, and how it can challenge you as the viewer as it invites you into their worldview.
Wonderlus ends on an emotional note combined with what feels like a sarcastic punch in your face. It’s smart, brilliant directorial debut and a well-needed burst of fresh air to the rom-com genre, avoiding the clichés about love and marriage in favor of an honest, realistic viewpoint of relationships. As long as you keep your need to wonder about the truths of life, this movie well suits your expectations.
Nilufer Yenidogan Ozmekik
Nilufer Yenidogan Ozmekik is screen writer, executive producer and founder of her new production company “N&Dreamakers Pictures”. After her graduation from Istanbul University/Faculty of International Relations, Nilufer finished her MA at Bilgi University Faculty of Communication & Media Studies, Cinema-Television, she started her writing career as screen writer for several highly rated Turkish TV series. For the past 7 years, she’s been living in the USA and creating projects for both American and Turkish movie and TV industry. In the last three years, her two movies “Fairytale of New York” and “Sleep of Love” have been released at selected US and European theatres. She is great fan of thrillers, fantasy books and Hitchcock, Argento, Fincher, Del Toro, Verbinski movies. She is also thankful to Satan for the inspiration when she’s writing her thrillers.
About Winter Film Awards
New York City’s 8th Annual Winter Film Awards International Film Festival runs February 14-23-2019. Check out a jam-packed lineup of 89 fantastic films in all genres from 32 countries, including shorts, features, Animation, Drama, Comedy, Thriller, Horror, Documentary and Music Video. Hollywood might ignore women and people of color, but Winter Film Awards celebrates everyone!
Winter Film Awards is an all volunteer, minority- and women-owned registered 501(c)3 non-profit organization founded in 2011 in New York City by a group of filmmakers and enthusiasts. The program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and the NY State Council on the Arts.
