A Star Is Born In ‘Flophouse America’: Captivating Mikal Navigates Poverty And His Parents’ Drinking In CPH:DOX World Premiere

deadline.com:

“Who spilled vodka on the cat?” are words that, to my knowledge, have never been spoken in a movie before. Until now. They are uttered by 12-year-old Mikal in the documentary Flophouse America, which just made its world premiere at CPH:DOX in Copenhagen, winning a Special Mention in the DOX:Award category.

Mikal was expressing not only concern for his cat Smoky, but frustration with his parents – the likely culprits behind the inadvertent moistening of the feline.

In the directorial debut of Norwegian photographer Monica Strømdahl, the captivating young Mikal spends a lot of his time as the responsible one in the household – regularly washing dishes in the bathtub, for instance, or tending to Smoky’s needs – while his parents occupy themselves drinking and smoking.

Though not yet a teenager, in many respects it’s he who takes on the parental role. “He had this fire inside, he had this strength,” Strømdahl tells Deadline. “I saw a child — in Norway, we call it løvetann barn, like ‘dandelion children,’ who grow through the pavement.