If one is looking for a film that doesn’t traverse the beaten path this summer, it’s difficult to imagine anything that will be more striking and darkly funny than Borgman, a Dutch thriller directed by Alex van Warmerdam that premiered at last year’s Cannes Film Festival. Set in the Netherlands, the domestic drama focuses on an enigmatic character Borgman, played with subdued menace by Belgian actor Jan Bijvoet, whose bizarre motivations propel the unsettling experience.
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.”
Today we’ve been provided with two stills to exclusively premiere, courtesy of Drafthouse Films. Seen below, the first features a scene from the exceptional opening with Bijvoet’s title character emerging from his underground lair as he’s being pursued. The next we won’t spoil, but it finds Richard (Jeroen Perceval) discovering a strange marking with mysterious implications. Check out both below (and click for high-resolution) for the film that shouldn’t be missed next month.
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 hits theaters on June 6th.