Direction: May el-Toukhy
Country: Denmark
Hailing from Denmark, Queen of Hearts is a spellbinding tale of luxury crammed with sexual tension and moral controversy. Co-writter Maren Louise Käehne and director May el-Toukhy had teamed up before in Long Story Short (2015).
With a razor-sharp performance, Trine Dyrholm can be classified as the director’s secret weapon, contributing heavily for the film’s triumph. She is Anne, a successful lawyer and mother of two who seduces her 17-year-old stepson, Gustav (Gustav Lindh), recently after he has joined the family. The explicitness of the sex scenes was an object of severe criticism, but they served to make the story more real, painful, and intensely felt. This moody drama has its pinnacle point when Anne’s secret is blatantly exposed. The situation still casts some doubt in her husband, Peter (Magnus Krepper), and that's when the remorseless Ann is forced to make a decision between her family/career and Gustav. Which will be preserved and which will be destroyed?
Queen of Hearts is a scandalous guilty pleasure that works so well because it’s patiently build with methodical accuracy and brutal authenticity. By focusing on a woman whose exploitative voluptuousness she coldly accepts, el-Toukhy provides us with a tough viewing, but not a superficial experience.
