Director: Michal Marczak
Starring: Tommy Hol Ellingsen, Leona Johansson
Running Time: 89 minutes
Rating: 18
Synopsis: Berlin’s F*ck For Forest is one of the world’s most bizarre charities. Based on the idea that sex can save the world, the NGO raises money for their environmental cause by selling home-made erotic films on the internet.
Before we start, FUCK FOR FOREST is undoubtedly real. You only have to put their name into Google just see these guys and then ask that age-old question “Does sex sell?” The NGO sells porn to raise money for the good of the Earth and it’s raised almost half a million euros since forming, so it definitely does seem that way.
The main character of the film is Danny, a naïve 20-something who was a champion horse racer but cannot stand the responsibility of being an adult. When we first see him, he’s wearing a Lightning McQueen bag, and when he returns home even his own mum doesn’t want to see him. He sees FUCK FOR FOREST as an organisation that can give him purpose and it does, but just a different kind of purpose of selling artsy home made erotic videos to save the rain-forest. They take their message to festivals, marches and pubs, and while some people welcome the campaign with open arms, others (quite obviously) don’t like it.
The first half of the film plays out that it ends up looking like some sort of ode to cheesy “reality” programmes like THE ONLY WAY IS ESSEX. We see our subjects staring forlorn in the distance, and conversations like “So what are you going to do tomorrow?” with the reply “Oh, I’m taking mushrooms” which makes for beautiful filmmaking but does nothing for the audience trying to believe this organization exists. We really aren’t won over by the gang at the charity. It is not until their journey takes them to the depths of the Amazon where the documentary finally kicks in. FFF end up in a village trying to buy the land so they can preserve it for the people. It is sad to see such a passionate organization being turned down so brutally because they mean well, they really do, but they discover that their ideology will only be favoured by bohemians and drunk festivalgoers. Despite going thousands of miles away to the Amazon from Berlin, they finally get a taste of reality. That is when the documentary finally kicks in, but you can’t help thinking it all starts just a little too late.
It can be incredibly creepy at some points, and off putting. Most of these moments come from the co-founder of FFF, Tommy Hol Ellingsen. You will have to see the documentary just to make your mind up about him, but approach him with caution. The most wonderful thing about documentaries is that they allow the world to get an insight into the absolute bizarre, and FUCK FOR FOREST definitely shows us that. Documentary filmmaker Michal Marczak really knows how to choose the most random of subjects!
FUCK FOR FOREST is available to buy on DVD here from Dogwoof.
