Trine Dyrholm Leads 'The Guest' Premiere at Karlovy Vary
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- Mads Mengel's feature debut "The Guest" world premieres in competition at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in July
- Trine Dyrholm (Queen of Hearts, The Girl with the Needle) co-stars as a woman estranged from her children who turns up uninvited at a weekend-long naming party for her son's firstborn at a luxury resort
- The selection marks the first Danish film in Karlovy Vary's main competition since Daniel Dencik's Gold Coast made the cut in 2015
- Mengel co-wrote the screenplay with Christian Bengtson; his 2019 graduation film For Juliane from the National Film School of Denmark earned a Danish Academy Award nomination
- Victor Cunha produces the film under his Copenhagen-based Monolit Film banner, with international sales handled by LevelK
- Simon Bennebjerg (The Pact, Promised Land) plays the son who wants her gone, and Josephine Park (The Nurse, Oxen) plays the sister who insists there won't be any issues
Why it matters: This is the first Danish film in Karlovy Vary's main competition in a decade (since Gold Coast in 2015), giving debut director Mads Mengel a major A-list festival platform after his Danish Academy Award-nominated graduation short. For Trine Dyrholm, it slots in alongside Queen of Hearts and The Girl with the Needle as another prestige Scandinavian art-house lead. LevelK takes a Danish competition title to the international market.
