The Cat Kingdom

An unemployed engineer is drawn into a bizarre web of conspiracies, secrets, and murky motives in an offbeat drama where skewed surrealism meets kitchen-sink realism.

Kenneth (Stefan Larsson) is content spending his days building detailed model vehicles, but his pregnant partner Marta (Nermina Lukac) insists that he attend job interviews. On his way to one of them, he crosses paths with marine biologist Sten (Björn Andersson), who offers him work as an assistant at his shipyard. What Sten actually does there remains unclear, and the more Kenneth learns, the more diffuse and incomprehensible things become. A character-driven tale of fatherhood anxiety, male friendship, and the longing for validation, this eccentric drama has all the makings of a future cult classic.

• Tobias Åkesson