UNEXPECTED GUESTS
“Unexpected Guests” is a short ethnographic film exploring Elisabeth’s unusual perceptions and experiences, how she makes sense of and finds value in them, and brings them into our shared social world.
This film is directed by Robyn Thomas in collaboration with Elisabeth Svanholmer. Charlie Jefferson created the original music score.
The world is more than it seems. In the trickling stream bellows the Sea God, and within the moss-blanketed forest stands Pan Ra. This world teems with danger and wonder, with stories and mythical beings. It is an immensely difficult world to navigate, but it’s also full of riches.
Hearing voices, seeing visions, and experiencing unshared beliefs are commonly pathologised as psychosis, yet many people claim that these experiences can provide meaning and depth to their lives.
Unexpected Guests premiered in 2024 at the 15th International World Hearing Voices Congress in Copenhagen, Denmark.
It has been officially selected by four international film festivals and has been translated into four languages by request. It’s also inspired a music album! We hope to be officially releasing the film around the end of October 2026.
Before the making it available online, it will be shown at a conference in Italy in early September and it will also be shown at Mad in Norway International Film Festival which takes place in Lillehammer september 24th – 26th
The program looks really great so check out https://madinnorwayfilmfest.org/
About Robyn Thomas
What does it mean to coexist with the wild, unruly, even mad parts of ourselves? I explore this question as a writer, anthropologist, and filmmaker.
My path has been a meandering one. I worked in the film industry in Vancouver and then as a public speaker and mental health advocate on Canada’s West Coast. In 2020, I moved to Edinburgh, Scotland, to complete my MSc in Global Mental Health. Now I’m a PhD candidate in anthropology researching voice-hearing, psychosis and meaning-making. I continue to make films and write fiction and non-fiction.
Some of Robyn’s writing:
Creative Nonfiction
Not All Here, published by Hunger Mountain Review (2023).
Fiction
A Safe Place, published by Whisk(e)y Tit (November 2024).
The Reviled Sisters, published by Marrow Magazine (2022) and republished by Carmina Magazine (2023).
Postmortem, published by Orca Literary Journal (2021).
Mercy, published by *82 Review (2024).
Love, Lies and Death Rolls, published by Active Muse (2024).
The Listeners, published by 7th-Circle Pyrite (2024).
Poetry
Ktunaxa Hoodoos, published by Pinhole Poetry (April 2025).
The Film
To see updates about the film either come back here to openmindedonline.com once in a while or you can subscribe and you will get emails when we post stuff.
You can also go to the facebook page for the film
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61567543988318
Open Minded Online 