Trine Dyrholm crashes a party in 'The Guest' at Karlovy Vary
Trine Dyrholm crashes a party in Mads Mengel's drama "The Guest," premiering at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival, when she arrives uninvited as estranged mother Vibeke at her son Karl's christening weekend—turning a seaside celebration into a tense reckoning with family wounds and proving why Dyrholm remains one of Denmark's greatest actors. Don't be fooled by that angelic smile: in "The Guest," Dyrholm is ready to wreak havoc.
Key Takeaways
- Trine Dyrholm plays Vibeke, an estranged mother who arrives at her son Karl's christening weekend in Mads Mengel's "The Guest," premiering at Karlovy Vary.
- The Danish family drama, sold by LevelK and produced by Monolit Film, explores forgiveness, mental health, and how parents become more complicated as we age.
- Mengel cast Simon Bennebjerg as Karl and Josephine Park as his sister Rikke, who clash over whether Vibeke deserves a second chance.
- Dyrholm and Mengel aimed to keep Vibeke nuanced rather than easily villainous, forcing audiences to negotiate their feelings toward her.
- The director says the film resists neat weekend resolutions, focusing instead on whether a fractured family can take one step toward each other.
Why does Trine Dyrholm crash the party in 'The Guest'?
In Mengel's drama, new father Karl (Simon Bennebjerg) is preparing for his child's christening at a seaside hotel. Everything goes according to plan until Karl learns his mother, Vibeke (Dyrholm), will be attending as well. When she arrives, viewers may wonder why he did not invite her. "She's good company and doesn't give a fuck about what other people think," Dyrholm tells Variety. But there is more to Vibeke, and her children are bracing themselves for the worst.
What makes Vibeke more than a toxic party crasher?
Mengel wanted Vibeke to resist easy categorization. "People don't usually arrive wearing a sign that tells us whether they deserve our trust," he says. "They can be warm, charming, polite—even loving—and still have a complicated past or have caused deep hurt." Dyrholm, whose career has been shaped by Sarah Kane's play "4.48 Psychosis," says she previously researched mental illness deeply; for Vibeke, she focused on longing instead. "She really wants to be at this party. She wants to be close to her son and her grandchild," Dyrholm explains.
How personal is 'The Guest' for director Mads Mengel?
"The Guest" is "probably the most personal thing" Mengel has done, though he stresses it is not autobiographical. What fascinated him was "how our understanding of our parents changes as we grow older, especially when we start our own families"—that moment when certainty cracks and people we have judged become more complicated. He grew up watching Dyrholm, known for the Oscar-winning "In a Better World" and recent films including "The Girl with the Needle" and "Birthday Girl," and calls her "simply one of Denmark's greatest actors." For more festival and streaming premieres, see our Streaming & TV Alerts coverage.
Can one weekend mend this Danish family?
Dyrholm sees Karl as having chosen a new family while Vibeke insists, "This is not you." His sister Rikke (Josephine Park) struggles to be present in her own life because she feels responsible for their mother. "Vibeke is a symbol of this family and of love and sorrow," Dyrholm says. Mengel agrees that "a lot happens over these few days," but he does not believe the deepest wounds can be neatly resolved in a weekend. Instead, he explores whether people can take a single step toward each other—because life rarely offers perfect endings, but sometimes a chance to begin again.