The Kook

Synopsis:

Fa is a gentle and unassuming member of an eccentric religious sect cloistered in The Catskill Mountains.  On the eve of her group’s scheduled “departure from Earth” Fa discovers that their leader, who appears to them as an alien hologram transmitted from a distant galaxy, is crossing signals with a man named Malcolm who lives close by.  After failing to convince the others of what she’s seen, Fa sets out alone into the “real world” to find Malcolm and confront the awful truth face to face.

The Kook is an off-beat comedy that’s at times chilling and poignant, and targets the state of truth in our society.

Director’s Statment:

We wanted to tell a story about confronting the truth behind false beliefs.  What happens when you’ve invested everything in something that turns out to be a complete fabrication?  A cult setting seemed to offer a lot to this end, and also gave us plenty of opportunities for humor.

In researching some real-life examples such as The Jonestown Massacre and The Heaven’s Gate tragedy, we also became curious about the idea of “cult” as “community”.  Cult’s are amazing examples of the extremes people go to in order to be a part of something larger than themselves; in a modern sense, to be socially networked.  This very human need can, in certain circumstances, take precedence over our own sense of self possession and responsibility to others.  When we represent a corporation in a job, or when we talk about a sense of nationalism, the powers and persuasion of the “group” can often overshadow our own point of view.  This seemed like fertile storytelling ground.  (And frankly, we were also really excited to shoot a bunch of lookalikes!)

Ultimately, The Kook is a film about the fluctuating value of truthfulness.  “How much truth do we really want to know?”, “When is the truth helpful and when can it be harmful?” and “How far should we go to pursue it?”  With recent headlines concerning Harold Camping’s rapture prophecies and various religious leaders’ claims about an impending 2012 apocalypse, questions about faith and responsibility to the truth are once again at the forefront of our national and global consciousness.

At first Fa’s character has to reconcile that her group’s leader is an impostor.  She’s then faced with an even more difficult dilemma:  should she tell her “family” about her discovery, or should she sacrifice herself in order to protect the ones she loves from the horror of the truth?

The Kook was filmed deep in the Catskill Mountains of New York State, a location that’s been a major source of inspiration for us. We’ve made a number of documentary films as well as television commercials set in the area, and are endlessly moved by it’s idiosyncratic culture and locations.  Many of the settings featured in the film, such as the cult’s bungalow, are actually seasonally abandoned Hasidic summer camps, while Malcolm’s house was provided by the self-declared “Mayor” of the hamlet of Smallwood.  A number of community run theaters that dot the Catskills region, bygones of a quintessentially American past, offered us a colorful and deep casting pool for the movie.

If you’ve got the password you can watch the screener below…