Due to the ongoing housing crisis in the U.S., many people are forced to live in run-down hotels, known as flophouses. Twelve-year-old Mikal shares a small, inexpensive room in one of these hotels with his parents and their cat, Smokey. Their home is marked by chaos and alcohol abuse, but also by love and the hope for a better future.
Director Monica Strømdahl has spent years traveling across the U.S., documenting life in these hotels. Eight years ago, she met Mikal, one of many children growing up in this environment. This coming-of-age documentary follows him over three years, capturing the pain of a fractured childhood alongside the warmth and complexity of family.
SCREENINGS & AWARDS
World Premiere: CPH:DOX – DOX:AWARD Competition 2025
2025 Movies that Matter (Dutch Premiere)
2025 Docville (Belgian Premiere)
2025 Visions du Réel (Swiss Premiere)
2025 Millennium Docs Against Gravity (Polish Premiere)
2025 Subversive Festival (Croatian Premiere)
2025 Biografilm (Italian Premiere)
2025 UnderHill International Film Festival
2025 Dokufest
2025 Cinema Parallels
2025 Athens IFF
2025 Nepatogus Kinas / Inconvenient Films
2025 Bergen IFF
2025 Sao Paulo IFF
2025 Ji.hlava IDFF
2025 DOK Leipzig
Upcoming: Northern Lights Film Festival (Nov. 3-23), Cork IFF (Nov. 6-16), PÖFF – Black Nights Film Festival – Just Film Festival (Nov. 7-23), Poreč Dox International Film Festival (Nov. 8-15), FrontDoc (Nov. 8-15), Verzio Film Festival (Nov. 11-19), DOC NYC (Nov. 12-30), Porto/Post/Doc (Nov. 20-29)
AWARDS
- Special Mention in DOX:AWARD Competition at CPH:DOX 2025
- Doc Alliance Award 2025 Nominee – Best Feature
- Wild Dreamer „Dragan Rubeša“ Best Documentary Film Award at Subversive Festival 2025
- Hera “Nuovi Talenti” Award in International Competition at Biografilm 2025
We were both shaken and deeply moved by the direct yet compassionate gaze Monica Strømdahl sets on young Mikal and his parents, showing us the truth about social outcasts in today’s America. “Flophouse America” touched us also as a universal cry for child protection.
Jury Statement, Hera “Nuovi Talenti” Award in International Competition at Biografilm 2025
- Shortlisted for European Film Awards 2026
- Best Norwegian Documentary at Bergen International Film Festival 2025
PRESS
Reviews: Screen Daily, The Film Verdict, Film Fest Report, Modern Times Review, ODG Magazine, D-Movies, Cineuropa, Variety, Le Polyester, International Cinephile Society, Variety
Interviews: AOb, Documentary Magazine, Deadline, Cineuropa, Business Doc Europe
***
“a film that prioritizes compassion above everything else”
Matthew Joseph Jenner, International Cinephile Society
“provides meaningful insight into a modern crisis, delivering it with genuine care and concern while being truly startling in the process”
*
“an unvarnished and acutely realistic portrait” … “a film that shows what poverty can bring and that it lives in close proximity to many while most remain oblivious to it”
Murtada Elfadl, Variety
*
“an unflinching, intimate portrait of life on the margins of US society” … ”it shows with honesty and nuance how systemic neglect, economic precarity and lack of mental-health support corrode the foundations of family life”
Davide Abbatescianni, Cineuropa
DIRECTOR’S BIOGRAPHY & FILMOGRAPHY
Monica Strømdahl
Monica Strømdahl is an international award-winning documentary stills photographer graduated from Falmouth College of Arts.
In 2019, she won the 1st prize at the Norwegian Picture of The Year, and was nominated for the Leica Oscar Barnack Award (LOBA). Monica is known for her intimate way of portraying people and their lives.
She has made short films, and Flophouse America is her debut feature film.
CREDITS
Director, DOP, writer Monica Strømdahl
Editor, co-writer Siv Lamark
Composer Andreas Ihlebæk, Marius Troy
Sound design Mark Glynne and Olmo van Straalen, Anthill Sound Design
Colorist Tom Chr. Lilletvedt, Hinterland
Producer Beathe Hofseth and Siri Natvik
Production company Fri Film
Co-production Eline van Wees, Basalt Film
Excecutive producer David Sutherland (US); Joshua Seftel and Eric Nicols, Smartypants (US)
SUPPORTED BY
The Norwegian Film Institute
The Netherlands Film Fund
Viken Film Center
Fritt Ord Foundation
Arts and Culture Norway
Norwegian Union of Journalists
RBB/ARTE
PRODUCER’S BIOGRAPHY & FILMOGRAPHY
Beathe Hofseth
Beathe Hofseth, CEO in Fri Film, has produced award winning documentaries, such as Light Fly, Fly High WP and awarded at IDFA, Labours of Love (2019) and Seventh Grade (2019) awarded at Chicago International Children’s Film Festival and The Golden Swan (2025). Beathe has participated in Berlinale Talents (2019), CineKid (2020), EuroDoc (2021) and EAVE (2023).
Siri Natvik
Siri Natvik, partner and producer in Fri Film. With experience from documentary directing, film dissemination, teaching and programming, Siri holds an MA in Journalism and a BA in Animation and Documentary film studies. Siri has produced films as The Golden Swan (2025), Oxygen (2025) and Labours of Love (2019).
PRODUCTION COMPANY
FRI FILM is a production company established in 2012, based in Oslo, Norway, driven by two female filmmakers. They focus on creative feature length documentaries with an international potential. In FRI FILM they believe that film can make a difference. They are especially engaged in topics such as human rights, discrimination, and gender equality, and are looking for strong, personal, character driven stories, made into creative features. They always aim to portray stories with visual artistry and aesthetic expression. Their goal is to make documentaries that reflect the world we live in and make people see their lives in a new perspective.
Fri Film
Norway
+47 970 36 023
beathe@frifilm.no
www.frifilm.no
CO-PRODUCTION COMPANY
Basalt Film
The Netherlands
+31 (0)6 16610600
info@basaltfilm.nl
https://www.basaltfilm.nl
EXCECUTIVE PRODUCERS
David Sutherland (US), Joshua Seftel and Eric Nicols for Smartypants (US)
