Nowadays who doesn’t have some degree of a gaming addiction? Whether it’s a first person shooter game on a major console or even just Words With Friends on your iPhone, things can get intense. Then again, probably not as intense as what happens to poor Jury in Rat King.
Sure, Jury (Max Ovaska) is a bit of an outcast and isn’t all that good at sports, but he’s got a girlfriend and a very proud mother. However, Jury’s gaming addiction is eating away at his livelihood more so than ever and, when his longtime gaming team mysteriously goes offline, Jury’s devastated and even debilitated. When one of those teammates, Niki (Julius Lavonen), shows up at Jury’s door, Niki informs him that they didn’t simply go offline; their lives are in danger. A new game threatens to kill them all off by forcing them to complete certain tasks and, if a player opts to quit, then they become the task. When Jury logs on and the game dubs him “King Rat,” Niki vows to help him through it so he doesn’t become another player’s task.
Rat King made its big debut as part of the Tribeca Film Festival’s Cinemania program and, to celebrate the occasion, Finnish writer-director Petri Kotwica took his very first trip to New York City. Just before Rat King showed before its very first Tribeca audience, Kotwica sat down to chat about making the film, from channeling his son’s gaming obsession to working with his cast, the inspiration for the name Rat King and much more. Check it all out in the video interview below.
