Facts

Original Title

Mr. K

Genre

Surrealistic Drama

Production Year

2023

Country of Origin

Netherlands, Belgium

Language Spoken

English

Length

96 min

Release Date
January 2025 by Paradiso

Director

Tallulah H. Schwab
Scriptwriter
Tallulah H. Schwab

Cast

Crispin Glover, Sunnyi Melles, Fionnula Flanagan, Bjørn Sundquist, Dearbhla Molloy, Barbara Sarafian, Jan Gunnar Røise, Esmée van Kampen and Sam Louwyck

Production Companies
Lemming Film (NL), A Private View (BE)

Producers
Erik Glijnis, Leontine Petit, Dries Phlypo, Judy Tossell

Slide Mr. K, a travelling magician, finds himself in a Kafkaesque nightmare when he can’t find the exit of the hotel he slept in. His attempts to get out only pull him deeper inside, entangling him further with the hotel and its curious inhabitants.

Tallulah H. Schwab

Director

Tallulah H. Schwab was born in Oslo, Norway in 1973 and came from a long line of actors and theatre designers. She virtually grew up within the walls of the national theatre.
As soon as she graduated from school, she moved to Amsterdam where she first studied film directing at the film and Television academy and later theatre at the theatre school. She made a number of short films for which she received awards both inside and outside of Holland. Her single play Mimoun and her series Taart were both nominated for an Emmy award and her feature film, Confetti Harvest was selected for the Generation program at the Berlinale festival in 2015.

Slide When I was a child the world seemed like a magical place where everything was possible. In adolescence it felt like a maze full of fascinating strange people who lived by social codes I did not understand but found intriguing. Many times in adulthood I thought I had found the answer to who I was and what my life should be, but then something unexpected would happen that turned everything upside down.
I grew up very protected, so these moments of drastic change were scary to me. They challenged what I thought my life was, the things I had felt sure of. Still, if I think back, these were probably the moments when I saw things most clearly. I felt the crushing randomness of life and realized how much more the world really is than the everyday life I had created for myself. I was confronted with the fact that what I saw around me was only a fraction of what life is, that I had merely created a comfortable bubble around myself.
As a person I am by nature like the inhabitants of the hotel. I don’t want to change and I want to be safe and shut out things that scare me. But at the same time I know I am fooling myself. Part of me is like Mr. K who can’t pretend that everything is all right.
What I have been exploring in "Mr. K" is the way we try to mold reality into something we can control and understand. How we protect the status quo by surrounding ourselves with others who share our view, making the world bite size and relatable.
But any personal truth is a paradigm waiting to be popped. There is always something more, something that comes from left field, something you hadn’t thought about that bursts your bubble and forces you to reassess all your previous assumptions.
-Tallulah H. Schwab STATEMENT The film touches on the absurdity of existence and the frustrating fact that there are no right answers. It’s about big truths, versus small truths and how we struggle to find meaning in a complex and ever changing world. How do we recognize what is important? What do we make important? What makes us feel safe? Who do we follow? Which truth do we choose? How do we know our own limits? How do we deal with change and the fear that comes with it? How do we deal with the unknown? How do we meet the future?
“Mr. K” is an existential drama. Existentialism is a philosophical movement in which individual freedom, responsibility and subjectivity is central. Existential stories are not about the issues of the day and the specific problems in a point in time. They deal with the timeless, universal questions. Why am I here? What is the meaning of my existence? Hence the name. They are questions that stay relevant throughout the ages. Mr. K is placed in the center of a chaotic and confusing world that keeps changing. Isn’t that essentially the human condition?
"Mr. K" is also a story about a man who feels completely irrelevant but discovers that he is in fact destined to play a role far greater than he can ever hope to fathom the importance of. It is about keeping an open mind, going down new paths and learning to accept the unknown.

Slide This film is about the struggle to find purpose and identity, using the mysterious hotel as a metaphor for our own life journey Understand the film and the characters The minisocieties in the hotel reflect the different types and personalities our world consist of Change and the dreams of change as well as the fear of the unknown are major themes in the film Mr. K.'s life starts when he enters the hotel, and he must try to find meaning to his existence on his own The creature in the basement and walls is a symbol of how the world gradually changes

Slide Anton is a control freak and kitchen assistant who wants a career and his own restaurant Mr. K. represents the individual struggling to find his place in the world, while change is gradually happening GAGA is the hotel's composer. She's an artist that wants to be ready to go on tour with the orchestra The Monchien sisters are some of the hotels oldest residents. They rarely come out of their room and have accepted their life as it is The chef is a hard working man who runs the kitchen and wants to go on a holiday Mrs. Hum is the only one who knows about the creature. She's a traditionalist who wants things to stay the same The followers are rather incompetent and want to be saved by the liberator Everybody in the hotel has the thing in common that they all want change; they want something new to happen but at the same time they are scared of change and want things to stay the same. It is this duality that Mr. K challenges when he arrives to the hotel. He brings change, and therefore the hotel starts changing as well and the creature starts maturing. Every inhabitant in the hotel has to face this change


Producing team

Erik Glijnis

Lemming Films

Glijnis graduated as bachelor of economics in Haarlem before studying for producer at the Netherlands Film Academy in Amsterdam. Glijnis loves to work on projects that are unique in storytelling and cinematography; films he produced so far have been classified as experimental and groundbreaking but also reached a wide audience. Since 2016 he’s working as producer at the renowned production company Lemming Film. In 2023 he’s listed as producer on the move. He’s an ACE graduate.

Leontine Petit

Lemming Films

Petit is CEO/producer and founder of Lemming Film (NL) and Lemming Film Germany (GER). Before working in film production, she studied at the University of Amsterdam where she earned her Master in Philosophy. She graduated from EAVE, is a member of the ACE Network, was Producer on the Move in 2006 and Toronto filmlab producer in 2013. In 2014 she participated in EAVE+ and graduated in 2017 from the UK training program INSIDE PICTURES.

Judy Tossell

Egoli Tossell

Trossell was born in England and moved to Berlin, Germany in 1989 where she began her film career working for veteran German producer Regina Ziegler. In 1996, Trossell founded her own independent company as a production platform for a group of talented young Berlin-based filmmakers. In 2001 she joined forces with filmmaker Jens Meurer and they have been producing under the Egoli Tossell banner ever since. Their track record spans over 75 productions, Independent Spirit, BAFTA, Academy Award nominations and a Golden Globe for Olivier Assayas’ Carlos as Best Miniseries in 2011. Highlights include Alexander Sukorov’s ground-breaking one-shot film Russian Ark, Michael Hoffman’s Academy Award-nominated The Last Station (Helen Mirren and Christopher Plummer) and Hector and The Search For Happiness (dir. Peter Chelsom) with Simon Pegg, Rosamund Pike, and Toni Collette. MR. K is Judy’s fourth collaboration as an independent producer for Lemming Film.

Dries Phlypo

A private view

Phlypo (1977) is producer and managing director of A Private View, Lemming Film Belgium and Mockingbird Productions. He started his career as a youth programmer for the Cultural Capital of Europe Brugge 2002 and launched the school programme ‘Lessons in the Dark’. He has produced a dozen films and co-produced more than 30 international films, including Dirty God (2019) by Sacha Polak and Cobain (2017) by Nanouk Leopold. His current films include Sea Sparkle (Generation Berlinale) by Domien Huyghe, Crossing by Jacqueline Van Vugt, and Inside (Panorama Berlinale) by Vasilis Katsoupis starring Willem Dafoe. He is a board member of the Flemish Producers Association (VOFTP) and member of the European Film Academy. He is a graduate of ACE PRODUCERS & Inside Pictures.

"Mr. K is simultaneously bizarre and touching; dark and playful. Tallulah’s vision is refreshingly original and boldly cinematic and she has gathered a superbly rich cast as well as incredible talents around her such as DP Frank Griebe (Run Lola Run, Cloud Atlas) to bring this vision to life. We are thrilled with the results and excited to see the film taking shape over the next months.”

- Producers' statement

CAST

Crispin Glover

Mr. K

Crispin Hellion Glover’s career has been marked by some portrayals of wonderfully eccentric people, such as George McFly in Back to the Future or Willard Stiles in Willard. He has been in many films over the decades since the 1980s such as River’s Edge Charlies’ Angels and will be seen in the upcoming Pawel Pawlikowski film The Island He has toured with two award-winning feature films that he directed What is it? and It is fine! EVERYTHING IS FINE.

Sunnyi Melles

GAGA

Internationally best known for her fearless performance as Vera in Ruben Östlund’s Triangle of Sadness, Sunnyi Melles was born in Luxembourg to Hungarian parents and grew up in Switzerland, where she first appeared on stage at the age of ten. She has since won multiple awards for her work in the theatre, television and film. Her credits include The Baader Meinhof Complex, Steppenwolf, Enfant Terrible

Bjørn Sundquist

The Chef

Considered by many to be Norway's finest and most talented actor of stage, screen and television, Bjørn Sundquist became the youngest ever recipient of the greatest honor in Norwegian film when he received the Honorary Amanda Award (Norway's Oscar) in 2000. Sundquist has recently appeared in major Norwegian films and TV series such as Oskar's America, The Machinery and Ragnarok, and the Norwegian version of Three Nuts for Cinderella. Internationally he featured in Hansel and Gretel: Witchhunters and Lilyhammer.

Fionnula Flanagan

Ruth Monchien

Born and raised in Dublin, Fionnula Flanagan boasts an enormous body of work for theatre, film and television and has won multiple awards including Irish Film & TV Awards for both The Guard and Transamerica. Other notable credits include Waking Ned Devine and the upcoming Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.

Dearbhla Molloy

Sara Monchien

In a very varied career covering almost sixty years to date, Irish-born Dearbhla Molloy has worked extensively in the UK, the US and Ireland, in Theatre and TV and more recently film, gaining a comprehensive list of awards and nominations on the way. She has been Tony, Olivier and Grammy nominated and won the London Critics’ Award for Juno and the Paycock opposite Judi Dench. Film credits include The Damned United, No Reservations and Wild Mountain Thyme.

Barbara Sarafian

Mrs. Hum

Born in Ghent, Belgium, Barbara Sarafian studied at the Academy of Dramatic Arts in Antwerp and at Parallax in Brussels. Her international career began with CQ and Fortress 2 - Re-Entry. In 1999 she starred in Peter Greenaway's 8 ½ Women as Clothilde. Her performance in Belgian film Moscow, Belgium earned her multiple awards. Besides many theatre and TV credits, Sarafian also starred opposite Matthias Schoenaerts in his break-out film Bullhead

Esmée van Kampen

Melinda

Dutch actress and singer Esmée van Kampen began her career in musical theatre and became the youngest lead in a musical in Holland when she secured the lead role in Hairspray. van Kampen subsequently became a popular and well-known name in Dutch commercials and TV series, and also played in feature films such as Loft and Crazy about Orange. van Kampen is now studying to become a goldsmith and came out of acting retirement to play Melinda.

Sam Louwyck

Grey Man

Sam Louwyck is a Flemish dancer, choreographer, actor and singer. He has had roles in Any Way the Wind Blows, Ex Drummer, Lost Persons Area, 22nd May, Fifth Season, which was in the official competition in Venice Film Festival. He also starred in Le Meraviglie and Belgica. Louwyck also performed in the critically acclaimed drama film Bullhead, which was nominated for an Academy Award in the category of Best Foreign Language film in 2012.

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Photo credit: © Kris Dewitte / Lemming Film / A Private View