Synopsis
It’s Christmas Eve, and the innocent and solitary John (30), attends an interview for a job as a nightwatchman at an international bank. Mr. Kessler (40), a refined, methodical man, is head of the Human Resources department and responsible for interviewing the candidate. His evaluation method is precise and relentless, and guided by a strict premise: that all details of the candidate’s life are equally important. With a tacit agreement of absolute privacy and confidentiality, Mr. Kessler wants to know absolutely everything about John’s personality to successfully determine whether he is the ideal candidate.
Not long after the interview begins, John confesses that he left school at the early age of eight. Mr. Kessler’s surprise rapidly leads him to discover that the applicant has never worked outside of the home and has grown up being practically held hostage by his mother. Although John is nervous and equivocal, he finally reveals that applying for this job represents the very first act of rebellion and independence he has committed in his entire life.
Mr. Kessler, instead of rejecting John as a firm candidate, needs to find out what has happened from the moment that John’s mother discovered that he’d applied for a job.
John’s mother, a widow of 60, extremely dominant and overprotective, fights fiercely against the threat of losing her son, by using constant emotional blackmail and manipulating reality to the point of provoking a series of asphyxiating situations that range from the grotesque to the horrible. Mr. Kessler, attracted and fascinated by John’s compelling story, coldly and precisely conducts the interrogation. He examines every detail, detects the slightest inconsistency, dangles false clues and thereby manages to reveal the raw truth of the overpowering,
dependent relationship that exists between mother and son.
Mr. Kessler discovers that John’s mother has challenged her son with one condition: he must choose between staying with her or accepting the job. Should he choose the latter option, then she would disappear for ever. John’s destiny thus remains in Mr. Kessler’s hands, and he will be forced to take an unusual decision with inevitable consequences.
When the interview is almost over, Mr. Kessler discovers that John suffers from polydactyly, a birth disorder resulting in extra fingers or toes. This was sufficient reason for his mother to isolate him from
society, from fear that he’d be rejected. Owing to the strange intimacy that has sprung up between John and Mr. Kessler, on this particular Christmas Eve they only have each other for company. Two men facing up to the same question: who is really the monster here?