K-Pax

Colour, 35mm
USA, 2001, 120 min
Section: Horizons

Synopsis

K-Pax is an adaptation of Gene Brewer’s novel. Doctor Mark Powell is a psychiatrist who is surprised at very little after all his years of experience. Thus, when Prot is admitted to the hospital – because he was found wandering around a New York railway station showing signs of drug use – the good doctor shows little interest in an affair which seems to him rather routine. Prot claims to be from planet K-Pax, and he’s got to be getting back home soon. At first Powell tries to convince him that he’s just another human being, but after he discovers that Prot has incredibly technical and detailed knowledge of space and the position of “his” planet, something known only to a few specialists, the doctor begins to have doubts about the efficacy of his approach. He begins to treat Prot with hypnosis and thus gradually unravels Prot’s mystery. Prot has a highly beneficial effect on other patients, and his encounter with the doctor is strong enough to help Powell resolve a conflicted relationship with his eldest son.

About the director

Iain Softley (b. 1958, England) is a graduate of Queen’s College, Cambridge, where he also directed a number of highly praised theatrical productions. He afterward began working in film: he hooked up with a regional branch of the BBC and made a documentary bio of phenomenal guitarist Robert Fripp (co-creator of Frippertronics), and with COI where he made films about pharmacies and restoring works of art. His filmography includes Backbeat (1994 – about the Beatles), Hackers (1995), The Wings of the Dove (1997 – adapted from the Henry James novel), and K-Pax (2001).