RAT KING Short Film Fundraiser

‘RAT KING’

Directed by Andrea Mae Perez

Story by Joonas Jaatinen

‘Rat King’ is a short film reflecting genres of magic realism, horror, thriller and tragicomedy.

• SYNOPSIS

The story unfolds throughout one day in a surreal East London. Rat King, an eccentric and unusual pest controller, and his trustful, eager apprentice River drive a van from one location to another across the city, carrying out their day-to-day work. At the same time, Rat King is being hunted by a twinlike duo, Laila and Leon, seeking an unknown reward as revenge for the jailing of a restaurant partner due to Rat King’s snitching. River is oblivious to this situation and is solely focused on making a good impression on his mentor. While Rat King is seemingly engaged, imparting his wisdom and knowledge to a keen, studious River, he is silently plotting how to escape the imminent danger preying on him. As the tension builds, Rat King’s behaviour becomes more erratic and perplexing and River realizes something is amiss, but then it is too late. Rat King will sacrifice everything, even his apprentice, to get himself out of the hole he has dug. After fighting how he is perceived throughout the film, Rat King finally succumbs to his identity in a disturbing and gruesome act to survive, however, not without entangling himself into a rat king of his own.

• THEMES

The film has two main themes which are survival and identity. It explores the extent we as humans are willing to go to survive and the mechanisms our brain develops to guarantee this survival, even if these might not make us proud in retrospect. What does this say about who we really are? It can be a scary process to be face-to-face with the darker sides of our humanity. Rat King confronts this dilemma in the story. His ego whispers that the only way to survive is to become — literally — a rat, but to do this, he needs to own his true identity, even if the world will hate him for it.

• LOCATIONS

The story takes place between the real world, based in a couple of East London locations, and a staged, unrealistic space set inside a studio. In the latter, we shot both the characters’ driving scenes as rear-projections and the crafted sets, painted backdrops and illustrations which visually represent Rat King’s mind, his superego and the naughty voice inside his head.

• CHARACTERS.

Rat King | Joonas Jaatinen

A quick-witted American outsider in his late thirties. His appearance is meticulous: his clothing is uncreased, his shoes are polished, and his hair and beard are trimmed to perfection. All these traits reflect how narcissistic, obsessive and compulsive he is.

In the story, we see him evolve from anxious and erratic — almost manic — to numb and emotionless. We bear witness to this journey by the way he talks to his apprentice, his increased fidgeting and sudden outbursts of hallucinations.

River | Louis Thresher

Born in London to a working-class family, River is warm and eager to learn but also naive and extremely gullible. In the beginning of the story, he does his best to please Rat King, because he respects and admires him too much to ever question his actions. Only at the very end of the story does he realise that Rat King is extremely delusional and disturbed. But, alas, it is too late to turn back.

Laila | Christine Gomes

Laila is a second-generation immigrant raised in London. Currently, she lives a double life. To her family, friends and most people she knows, she’s just a physical therapist. They are unaware of her actual job as a tough leader, and her relationship with a female lover. Despite her questionable actions, she has a strong sense of justice and loyalty and is not a cold-blooded person.

Leon | Bentley Kalu

“The Brawn,” “The Weight,” “The Muscle,” He is Laila’s sidekick. He is an excessively strong and powerful British man with robotic movements. Leon was born in Jamaica but arrived in London as a young boy. He has a slight accent, but we don’t know that since we never hear him speak. He is antisocial and lives in his mind. He doesn’t like people, only birds. Whenever he’s not working, he practises birdwatching.

• OUR TEAM

We are very lucky for every member of the team in this film. Every single person has brought so much to the project and truly elevated it beyond expectation.

Our core team who will be additionally taking part in the filming of the pickups:

Andrea Mae Perez (director)

Andrea is a Spanish and American-Ecuadorian director, photographer and visual artist, born in Madrid.

After graduating from the University of the Arts of London in 2015 with a First-Class Honours degree in Film and Television Production, her thesis short film Desert-ar had a successful run of festivals. Since the making of that film, she has directed a variety of music video, narrative and commercial projects. In parallel, she has worked as a photographer for several notable music labels.

Her clients include Sony Music, Ninja Tune, Parlophone, Polydor Records, Atlantic Records, City Slang and Tate among others. Her work has been featured in press such as British Vogue, Metal Magazine, Wonderland Magazine and Lomography Magazine.

Andrea’s work stems from exploring magical realism as a visual art form. Her close attention to framing and expressionistic colour amplifies her ability to cast a distinctive atmosphere and mood across her work. The absurdity of her subjects and their caricature only add to the surreal element of her pieces as she further delves into the human condition in a heightened and evocative fashion.

Mia Xerri (producer)

Mia is a Film Producer with over 13 years experience across Short Film, Commercials, TV, Documentary and Music Videos for some of the world's leading brands, channels, agencies and film institutes. Mia’s roles in-house at The Progress Film Company and Be The Fox saw her lead award winning productions in the UK and Internationally. Mia has been featured on BFI's Short Film Podcast and selected for BFI NETWORKS South East Emerging Producers Programme 2021. Her BFI NETWORK short film X to X directed by Lily Gwynne-Thomas and starring Tanya Reynolds was selected by BAFTA, Oscar and BIFA qualifying Cleveland International Film Festival, Dallas International Film Festival, Rhode Island Film Festival, Kino Shorts, Berlin Shorts and Shortest Nights and won awards for Best Director, New Talent and Special Mention at Lowestoft and Renaissance Film Festivals. Mia has a number of shorts and two features in development and has a passion for films that explore uncommon perspectives, remote and historical worlds and are darker in genre.

Elliot Beach (cinematographer)

Originally a well-versed and respected gaffer, Elliot has worked with all major short-form production companies in the UK - among them notable talent such as Bradford Young, Rina Yang (Euphoria, Nanny) & Annika Summerson (Censor, Mogul Mowgli).

He has made himself a name as a technical as well as a creative filmmaker and, over the years, been involved in a number of award-winning narrative projects, commercials and music videos of various budgets, from low budgets to over £1million.

With this extensive background Elliot is now, at the start of his DoP career, taking on projects of different formats and bringing a distinctive perspective to each of them.

Laura Little (production designer)

Laura Little is an Art Director and Production Designer based in London working across narrative, commercial, music videos and installations. She has had key experience in the industry over the past ten years and some of her works have been screened at well renowned festivals including SXSW and Raindance.

Laura’s style leans towards themes of playful surrealism, always enjoying an opportunity to create something different and unique.

• WHY WE NEED YOU

At the end of September, we began and completed our main shoot for ‘Rat King’. All the scenes involving actors and dialogue have been shot. These include a street and a carpark in East London for the scenes with the stationary van, and a film studio for those with the characters inside the van in movement, which we shot as rear-projections. Additionally, we always planned to shoot some specific cutaways to tie in the sequences and, specifically, the driving scenes transitioning from the real world into the rear-projection. However, after filming, we decided that instead of shooting these additional pickups directly after, we’d start the edit of our film and see exactly where the transitions were needed to be as specific as possible. Thanks to our amazing editor Sam Allen, our edit is now in a really good place, and we are ready to film the last few bits that are needed to complete the cut and the remaining post-production stages which is very, very exciting!

Rat King has been 100% self-funded up to this point. It is a pure labour of love, indie filmmaking at its best, and a project we deeply believe in. We now need you to help us complete the last stages of the project.

• Driving cutaways: We need scenes involving the van to transition in between the streets and the studio set.

• Rat world cutaways: Specific items that live inside Rat King’s mind and that serve both as props and as metaphors in the story.

• Festival applications: We, of course, want this film to reach far and wide!

• THANK YOU

Thank you for your time and your contribution. We deeply appreciate every single donation, no matter how small. Each and every person who contributes will be credited at the end of the film.

Lastly, please follow our Instagram page @ratkingfilm to support the film and stay up to date with its progress.

We hope you are able to be a part of the making of this magic realist universe <3

*All BTS pics by Jack Thompson-Roylance and Luke Shenton-Sharp*