Flophouse America
Monica Strømdahl / Norway, Netherlands & United States / 2025 / World Premiere / 80 min
A 12-year-old boy defies his parents' alcohol abuse and finds glimmers of hope in an unexpected tragedy, in a heartbreaking film from the desperate flip side of America.
You never really know if it’s day or night in ‘Flophouse America’. Here we meet 12-year-old Mikal, a bright boy in a difficult situation. He lives with his mom and dad in a cheap hotel – a ‘flophouse’ – which, in a time of radical inequality, is both a home and a state of being for vulnerable people on the margins of American society. His parents drink, and although they love their son, they live in a chaos of drinking and desperate poverty. A heartbreaking tragedy becomes a final turning point for Mikal and his father.
Director Monica Strømdahl is a photographer by profession, and she captures the pain and the fragile hope in the family’s life with formidable precision. Strømdahl had been traveling around the US for 15 years as a photographer documenting life on the margins when she met Mikal and his parents, and replaced her camera with a film camera.
Three years of footage has turned into an unflinching and unforgettable film, which – now that Mikal has turned 18 and has approved it – is ready to create change for the vulnerable children around the world to whom it is dedicated.