Borgman
Director: Alex van Warmerdam
Writer: Alex van Warmerdam
Cast: Jan Bijvoet, Hadewych Minis, Jeroen Perceval, Alex van Warmerdam, Tom Dewispelaere, Sara Hjort Ditlevsen, Elve Lijbaart, Dirkje van der Pijl, Pieter-Bas de Waard, Eva van de Wijdeven
Part of: /slash Filmfestival
[Review by Maynard Morrissey.]

Plot:
After being chased from his last hiding place, homeless Camiel Borgman (Jan Bijvoet) shows up at Marina (Hadewych Minis) and Richard’s (Jeroen Perceval) house, asking for a bath and pretending to know Marina. Richard is enraged by Camiel’s forwardness and beats him. But after Richard leaves, Marina finds Camiel still at their house and offers bath, food and shelter, not knowing that this is an invitation for Camiel to completely turn her life upside down as she falls more and more under his spell.

Borgman is a weird film, with the most positive definition of weird you can think of. I didn’t even begin to understand it, but I loved every second of it despite, or maybe because of, that.

During the past five years of /slash Filmfestival, a rather tight-knit group of slightly obsessive movie fans has established itself, of which I am a part. We watch (almost) all the films together, we discuss them and usually we have very different opinions about all of them. There is the occasional exception where we all agree that a film sucks and the even rarer exception where we all agree that a film is great. After Borgman, we were all standing in front of the cinema, equally impressed by what we had just seen and animatedly discussing various events in the film and what they could have meant (which quickly devolved into making a long list of awesome moments).

Borgman is first and foremost incredibly surreal. Things happen and you don’t know exactly why or how they are connected to each other. But even though there’s no understanding the film (and I don’t think there ever will be), it doesn’t become frustrating at all. There is enough logic to it to keep you interested, which means that you can just lean back and enjoy the ride.

And what a ride it is. Chaperoned by Jan Bijvoet’s amazing performance, there are dogs that may or may not be shapeshifters. There’s outright manipulation and supernatural dream manipulation. There is murder and (gardening) mayhem. There is an amazing performance on a stage built over a garden pond.

It’s a tour not only through strange set-ups, but also through various moods: it will leave you laughing and scared and confused, but most of all, it will enchant you from the start and make you breathlessly wait for whatever Borgman comes up with next.

Summarizing: I’m a little in love with the film, so let me spread that love: watch it.