Borgman is a Dutch film about a possibly supernatural figure whose presence gradually disrupts an affluent suburban family’s seemingly idyllic home proportionally to how much the inhabitant(s) welcome him. Borgman has some nudity and violence, but it is not sensational and is integral to the plot. Borgman is all subtitles so bring your reading glasses.
I am usually reluctant to recommend foreign films if they are strange or surreal unless a person is already open to that type of film, but if you are looking to escape the blockbuster, commercial movie doldrums and want to dip your toe into the artsy fartsy film world, I would highly recommend Borgman, which I watched two times in a row and rewound to rewatch several scenes. Borgman is a perfect film to explain our fellow citizens’ fervent desire for and joy over destruction.
Borgman is just a catalyst for what is already in the hearts of each member of the family: prejudice, lust, betrayal or violence. Borgman depicts how a nagging sense of guilt over probably ill-gotten good fortune can become a secret wish for self-destruction. They are not worried that everything will come crashing down. They want it to, and destroying things is what they already do, but it is hidden behind the veneer of respectability and affluence and only recently has become not profitable or pretty. They are secretly tired of living Dorian Gray’s life. They want the outside to really reflect who they are. If one broadly applies the concept, Borgman is about a perverse sense of societal justice: since the privileged can bribe justice to look the other way, they will make sure that they get what they deserve by destroying themselves. Unfortunately because of their status, they exercise a measure of control over other people and do not care if those people become non-consensual victims.
Borgman is an anti-creation story meets antichrist story. The events in Borgman take place over seven days. There are many possible ways to interpret Borgman, the titular character: he is simply a magnetic weirdo like Manson except sane and less murderous; he is an incubus or an alp; or he is the Devil or a demon. I would dismiss the first, but be open to the idea that Borgman is some combo of the last two. Borgman looks for and finds disciples, but not among the humblest people like fisherman and shepherds.
If you are looking for a more in depth analysis of Borgman, keep reading otherwise come back after you have seen the film.
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Borgman is definitely a supernatural figure. Borgman frames the entire movie by beginning with the following quote, “And they descended upon the Earth to strengthen their ranks.” This quote is not from the Bible, but it feels like a reprise of “I saw Satan fall like lightning,” as if Satan replied, “You didn’t kick me out. I left! And I’m getting back up.” Because Borgman cannot have sex, the only way that he can reproduce is to convert human beings into his kind by some odd surgical process, which I don’t understand the significance of. By the end of the film, we know that he has successfully converted the family’s children and the nanny, but kills the parents perhaps because they are too old or already sexually reproductive beings (unless the nanny is a virgin, which I doubt because she has a boyfriend and is constantly going out at night). The beginning and the end of Borgman has broken eggs-during the raid and as a late night meal after the performance. You have to crack a few eggs to make an omelette or are they signs of fertility?
Borgman uses imagery from Henry Fuseli’s The Nightmare to reinforce the titular character’s supernatural nature. Borgman is rightfully treated like Frankenstein’s monster in the beginning of the film when a priest, a couple of armed men and a dog drives him and two other guys, who later appear as greyhounds, out of the forest. When the movie unfolds, it becomes obvious why the mob took such extreme action. Once you give Borgman an inch, he takes a mile. He has a supernatural talent for winding his way into people’s lives and figuring out and magnifying their weaknesses. After a couple of tries, he correctly guesses the wife’s name, Marina, claims that she is his nurse, which she later becomes, and his former lover, which she later wants and deceives her husband about her subsequent involvement with Borgman. He and the other alps never sleep and are just addicted to TV, which fundamentalists can appreciate since they often call Satan “the prince of the air(waves).”
Borgman takes pleasure in taking Jesus’ disguises and perverting them. He even tells the wife to follow him. First, he appears as a homeless man. In Matthew 24:35-40, “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me.” Unlike Jesus, he is not grateful for two cents. Borgman is never satisfied. He initially wants a bath, then another, then a job, then a seat at the table, then the house, then your life, then your wife and finally your children. Jesus ultimately serves you and washes his disciples’ feet. Borgman wants you to serve him even when he is better. As he gains more favor with the family and spends more time with them, his appearance improves, and they get physically sicker. He is a spiritual parasite.
Second, Borgman appears as a gardener, but instead of creating a Garden of Eden, he destroys the garden, makes it a blasphemous stage (“I am We Are”—i.e. God, We Are) and ultimately a graveyard. John 10:10, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” He emerges from the wilderness/forest and returns to the wilderness/forest once the garden is transformed. Borgman the film does a better and more subtle job than The Witch in harnessing our collective colonial European fears of the forest as the devil’s habitat. Borgman is a devil disguised as a gardener and cultivator of life, but only wreaks havoc. In contrast, Jesus says in John 15:1, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.” On the sixth night, the night of the performance, there is a lot of kissing like Judas kissing Jesus in the Garden of Gethasame. When Borgman finally wins, the weather suddenly turns stormy. He washes his hands like Pilate. Borgman turns the garden into Golgotha.
Third, one of his fellow alps comes disguised as a physician, but since they are making everyone sick, it is just more subterfuge for their sinister goal. Borgman is not a healer like Jesus. He is the sickness.
Fourth, Borgman literally supplants the father in the story just like he wants to overthrow the Father. In an earlier scene, Borgman depicts the father as a storyteller. Later, we see Borgman telling stories to the children. We never hear the full story, but the story includes a detail about “boring Jesus” and a dead white child.
Why do I see this family as willing disciples and not victims? There is a Christian concept in John 10:27, “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.” There are people who hear Borgman then either ignore him or recognize how corrupting he is and drive him out.
The family in Borgman does not do this, but as they learn more about his sinister nature, they become more eager to associate with him. John 8:44-45. “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not.” They recognize Borgman’s voice. Certainly Borgman uses his supernatural gifts to speed up the corruption process, but all the necessary ingredients were already there to bake this devil’s cake (eggs).
First, Marina is a daughter of Eve. Marina likes to superficially pretend that she is the moral person while secretly she loves Borgman’s destruction. When she gives Borgman permission to have a bath, it feels like a weird perversion of Jesus washing someone else’s feet and what you do for the least of these, you do for me. She is doing it for herself. She is attracted to him, she believes sexually, but it is more than that. Marina really acts like a servant by helping him put on a robe and putting slippers on his feet. She chastises her child for spoiling things, and her nanny for inviting strangers into the house, then does so. She knows that what she is doing is wrong, but she wants to be bad and lacks the courage to be open about it. She is bored. When she sacrifices her original gardener, she has sealed her fate. After her husband dies, she does not drive away,but returns home with Borgman.
Second, Richard, Marina’s husband, is definitely a son of Adam, specifically Cain. Richard reveals that despite his status, he is an extremely violent and jealous person even if the scenario is ridiculous. He really believes that he owns his wife, including her past. Richard reveals his ethnocentrism after Marina expresses her guilt at their good fortune, “the fortunate must be punished,” he responds, “The West is affluent.” He is openly racist and classicist in his hiring process. It is later revealed that he has betrayed his work colleagues and is greedy. When Borgman changes his appearance, he happily welcomes Borgman because he is a white guy in a suit. He is thrilled at Borgman’s production even though it is not what he is hired to do. Even before the performance, the black clad ballerina is seen briefly twirling on the lawn behind the family. The father’s prosperity is based in corruption, and anyone can discern it if one is unblinkingly attentive.
Third, the first kid, Isolde, is culpable. It does not take long before she is murdering people and covering the alps’ tracks. She guts her stuffed animal with glee. Sadly, the nanny and the other children appear to be true victims because they are either given a mysterious substance to drink, or in the nanny’s case, Borgman gives us visual cues analogous to rape.
If you recall earlier, I mentioned that after the performance, Borgman washes his hands like Pilate. This action implies that the family has shouted, “Give me Barabbas,” rejected the father symbolically and played the role of Judas in the father’s death, complete with kissing and portentous offerings of drinks.
There are few movies that depict people knowingly and happily destroying their world, and it is the one aspect of human nature that baffles me. Borgman is the perfect movie for people like me who can’t understand why someone would do something that may result in temporary financial gain, but ultimately would harm those that they care about by polluting the air and the water that they need. Borgman explains that destroying the world is an innate part of being a devil worshipper, but it is also a perverse part of their desire for justice.