The Lobster · written by Yorgos Lanthimos and Efthimis Filippou · 2015

At the hotel’s staged welcome, Limping Man begins his account by saying his father left his mother for a woman better at maths.

Scene 21 of 123 · ≈ 1 min on screen · Act two

Hotel Manager
Limping Man

Act oneAct two

Begins 17 min into a 1:28 film

The story so farBefore scene 21

After his wife leaves him, David has 45 days to find a partner at a hotel or become an animal; he escapes, falls for a shortsighted loner, and must decide whether to surrender his sight so they can stay together.

Scenes 1–15
David moves from his broken home into the hotel, where couplehood is imposed as the norm.
Just before
Scene 18
David wakes with his trousers still attached to the cuff, fixes his hair, and gives Bob water.
Scene 19
At breakfast David meets Limping Man and Lisping Man, then agrees to join their walk.
Scene 20
Limping Man describes a successful couple as proof he can find a partner, while David listens on the beach.
Scene 21
This scene

21INT. LECTURE HALL - MIDDAY

The new arrivals at the hotel sit on four chairs on stage. David sits last in line. There is a wireless microphone which they each take to speak. Behind the podium stands the Hotel Manager. Her husband stands beside, and a little behind her.

All the residents attending the event are sitting very quietly. The hall is half empty. Waiters and Maids stand randomly around the room, in pairs.

HOTEL MANAGER

Room 206, Day 2.

LIMPING MAN

Hello, everyone.

LIMPING MAN (V.O.) (CONT’D)

My mother was left on her own when

my father fell in love with a woman

who was better at maths than she

was. She had a postgraduate degree

I think, whereas my mother was only

a graduate.