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    Queen of Hearts

    Directed by May el-Toukhy
    Denmark | 128 minutes | Awards Buzz – Best International Feature Film

  • View Trailer

    Queen of Hearts

    Directed by May el-Toukhy
    Denmark | 128 minutes | Awards Buzz – Best International Feature Film

  • View Trailer

    Queen of Hearts

    Directed by May el-Toukhy
    Denmark | 128 minutes | Awards Buzz – Best International Feature Film

A successful lawyer puts both her career and family on the line when she seduces her 17-year-old stepson in director May el-Toukhy’s provocative, elegantly crafted melodrama that won the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival.

film synopsis

It would seem that Anne (the remarkable Trine Dyrholm) already has it all: a challenging career as an advocate for abused children, a loving marriage to a successful physician, well-behaved twin daughters, and a gorgeous modernist home. But when 17-year-old Gustav, Anne’s husband’s sullen, rebellious son from an earlier marriage comes from Sweden to stay with her family, it sparks something transgressive within her. In an attempt to win his loyalty, she crosses the line from friendship to something more reckless: she seduces the lad. This provocative yet elegantly made melodrama shows what happens when a confident, judgmental woman convinced of her own superiority really does try to have it all. “This is Dyrholm's show and she gives it her all, emotionally and physically, delivering a full account of a woman who does whatever she wants because she believes she can get away with it.” – Todd McCarthy, The Hollywood Reporter

In competition for the FIPRESCI Prize

film details

Director: May el-Toukhy
Producers: Caroline Blanco, René Ezra
Screenwriter: Maren Louise Käehne, May el-Toukhy
Cinematographers: Jasper J. Spanning
Editor: Rasmus Stensgaard Madsen
Music: Jon Ekstrand
Cast: Trine Dyrholm, Gustav Lindh, Magnus Krepper
Original Language Title: Dronningen
Country: Denmark
Language: in Danish with English subtitles
Year: 2019
Running Time: 128 minutes
Director Filmography: Long Story Short (2015)
Awards: Audience Award for World Cinema - Dramatic Competition, Sundance; Jury Award for Best Narrative Feature, Philadelphia Film Festival
Primary Company: Breaking Glass Pictures

director biography

2020 Film Festival