The Voorman Problem is a 2013 short film directed by Mark Gill.
Dr. Williams (Martin Freeman), a psychiatrist, is summoned to a prison to examine a patient named Voorman (Tom Hollander). Voorman, it seems, believes that he is God. This wouldn't be such a big problem, except that Voorman has managed to convince all the other inmates that he is God.
The warden asks Dr. Williams to certify that Voorman is insane, so that the warden can send Voorman to an asylum. Williams is incredulous when Voorman proclaims that not only is he actually God, he invented the entire universe, including Williams, only nine days ago.
Based on a short story by David Mitchell.
Tropes:
- Dystopia: Hinted at. Most of the psychiatrists in Britain are busy serving in some sort of "ever-expanding war in the East", and the warden at the prison is astonished at the very idea that any of his prisoners might be released.
- Foreshadowing: The nods to some sort of dystopia (see above) are actually a subtle hint that Voorman is telling the truth. After all, Britain has never been in a "war in the East" recently.
- God: Voorman is God. A pretty evil one, to be honest.
- A God Am I: So says Voorman, and it turns out that he's right.
- God Is Evil: Voorman tells Williams that wars amuse him. And at the end he switches places with Williams, leaving to have sex with Williams's wife while Williams is locked in prison. Oh, and he literally wipes Belgium off the map.
- God Test: Voorman offers to prove that he is God by doing away with the existence of Belgium. Williams is horrified when his wife doesn't know what Belgium is. He checks his encyclopedia and finds the space formerly occupied by Belgium to be a body of water called the "Walloon Lagoon."
- Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: The God Test wouldn't work if Williams didn't remember that there was once such a thing as Belgium. But nobody else does.
- The Shrink: Dr. Williams, who has a most peculiar patient.
- This Cannot Be!: Williams says this several times word-for-word when his encyclopedia seems to indicate that Belgium no longer exists.
- Title Drop: "The point is, the Voorman problem," says the warden, when explaining why Dr. Williams has been called to the prison that day.
