„If you don’t fall in love while you’re here, you will be turned into an animal”. Newly-single David (Colin Farrell) has to face this announcement after his wife has left him for another man. David is the main character in the dystopian love film The Lobster by Giorgos Lanthimos. The plot is set in some parallel reality, a not really futuristic future, in a world where being alone is a no go. Those not living in a relationship are brought to a hotel and have 45 days there to find real love – or face life as an animal from there on. In case he fails, David is prepared: he wants to be a lobster. Because these animals live long and monogamously, he says. The choice of the lobster doesn’t seem to be coincidence for the Greek director, either, considering that Dalí and Max Ernst made the crustacean a symbol for surrealism, for bizarre dream worlds. And that’s the kind of world The Lobster plays in. A world in which self-determined singles live in hiding in the forests as »Loners« and are hunted by the couples for recreational purposes. The film is a caricature of the present, in which your love life has become one the most important components of your CV. Relationship Status: It’s complicated.
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The Lobster | 2015, Giorgos Lanthimos | in various Yorck-Kinos
