Are you ready for a little strange to go with your summer? One of the big surprises in the main competition at last year’s Cannes Film Festival is Borgman, a Dutch thriller directed by Alex van Warmerdam. Set in the Netherlands, the film focuses on an enigmatic character Borgman, played with subdued menace by Belgian actor Jan Bijvoet, whose bizarre motivations propel this unsettling experience. While we included it amongst our favorites of last year as well as the best of Cannes, its U.S. release is also something we’re greatly looking forward to, and to gear up for its June release, we have the domestic trailer.
We said in our review, “Reminiscent of such films like Ben Wheatley‘s Kill List, Michael Haneke‘s Funny Games and cult hit The Wicker Man, the drama slowly creeps under your skin with an unsuspecting dose of malice. Equal parts mystery and dark satire, Borgman is an original take on an abstract horror premise that never fully appears to be what you might expect it to be.” Featuring Jan Bijvoet, Hadewych Minis, Jeroen Perceval, Sara Hjort Ditlevsen, Eva van de Wijdeven, Annet Malherbe, Tom Dewispelaere, and Alex van Warmerdam, check out the trailer, synopsis, and poster below.
A dark suburban fable exploring the nature of evil in unexpected places, Borgman follows an enigmatic vagrant who enters the lives of an upper-class family and quickly unravels their carefully curated lifestyle. Charming and mysterious, Camiel Borgman seems almost otherworldly, and it isn’t long before he has the wife, children and nanny under his spell in a calculated bid to take over their home life. However, his domestic assimilation takes a malevolent turn as his ultimate plan comes to bear, igniting a series of increasingly maddening and menacing events.
Borgman opens on June 6th.