“The Guest”, interview with director Mads Mengel

Danish director Mads Mengel‘s debut feature, The Guest, was more than well received at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival 2026. This sensitive and psychologically nuanced account of an initially jolly family reunion for a newborn baby’s naming ceremony, suddenly tainted by the arrival of an unwanted guest, the mentally unstable, unpredictable mother (a part in which Trine Dyrholm delivers a captivating performance) of the young father (a distraught Simon Bennebjerg with whom the viewer cannot help empathising, as we see him unravel) was awarded the Special Jury Prize, and earned Mengel the Best Director Award. We spoke to the filmmaker – and co-writer of the film with Christian Bengtson, with whom Mengel is already working on a new project –, which says his approach of this family’s conundrum was very much informed by this quote from poet David Whyte: “To forgive is to assume a larger identity than the person who was first hurt.”

On forgiveness and mending old wounds

On going against the grain of what one would expect of a Danish film on a disrupted family reunion turning tense: “I think the film, at its core, is about forgiveness and trying to take the first steps towards being able to mend old wounds. We wanted to give the audience a feeling that it’s never too late to change some dynamics which may seem like they are forever set in stone.”

On mental illness and acceptance

On mental illness and acceptance: “When you have a loved one who is suffering from mental illness or struggling in any way, there will always be longing in you for it to not be so, and I think accepting the situation – in Karl’s case, accepting that this is his mother, good and bad – is what can open him up to maybe forgiving some of the things that have been hard on him.”

Trine Dyrholm and the tension of an unpredictable mother

On the tension deriving from the ambiguity of the mother’s effervescent behaviour, and on Trine Dyrholm’s turn in this constantly borderline role: “We wanted to convey that experience to the audience as well, because that’s what her kids in the film have grown up with, always not knowing what’s gonna happen next. […] I think Trine captured that tension perfectly. I think she’s the greatest actor we have in Denmark, so we couldn’t believe our luck when she said yes. That was a dream come true for all of us, especially for me.”

Sixteen drafts to find the right balance

On the film’s nuanced approach and finding that balance in the script: “I think we wrote sixteen drafts of the script. We went back and forth with the actors, each time using the actors’ notes to rewrite. We [also] shot an 18-minute pilot, over two days, to figure out who these characters were and how they talked to each other, and then went back to the writing room. It was very important to us that the viewer would have sympathy for all the characters, in the end, but also that their sympathy would switch sides, maybe from scene to scene [and that they] would understand everyone, in some way. […] We didn’t want a clear hero or a clear villain. Everyone should be to blame a little bit, because I think that is a reflection of real life, especially within the context of a family. There’s a lot of complexities and nuances. […] Nothing in the world is really black-and-white, there is always a bunch of grey nuances and I think you can have two feelings which are polar opposites rising at the same time, and both of them can be true at the same time.”

Plot