Toronto-based playwright and author David Demchuk (The Bone Mother) joins the pod to discuss Michael Verhoeven’s The Nasty Girl (1990), a coming-of-age tale based on a true story about a precocious and tenacious young student who enrages her small German town as she relentlessly endeavours to uncover what life was really like there during the Third Reich.

Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, The Nasty Girl has kept a lower profile in recent years but is fascinating to reconsider today with its unexpected use of comedy and Brechtian distancing devices (rear-screen projection, direct address, surrealist scene staging) to tell this troubling tale about buried history and the plight of the truth-teller, grounded by an incredible performance by Lena Stolze.

David also discusses his upcoming horror novel RED X.

David’s latest novel RED X comes to you from boundary-pushing Penguin Random House imprint Strange Light on August 31. Preorder now!

Canada: http://tinyurl.com/RED-X-CDA

US: http://tinyurl.com/RED-X-USA

David's website: daviddemchuk.com

David's nice Twitter: @david demchuk

David's not-as-nice Twitter: @dd_toronto

German trailer for Das schreckliche Mädchen (Michael Verhoeven, 1990)