How ‘Queen of Hearts’ Director Made a Feminist Story About a

The story of a lady who has an affair along with her teenage stepson in May el-Toukhy’s movie “Queen of Hearts” might not sound like essentially the most optimistic of feminine narratives within the lens of the #MeToo motion.

But el-Toukhy and star Trine Dyrholm clarify that you just’re purported to really feel uncomfortable — even shameful — whereas watching this in any other case sturdy, assured and highly effective feminine character present that her morally corrupt conduct nonetheless makes her human. And telling tales about any ladies on display — even unhealthy characters — continues to be essential.

“We stand on the shoulders of the female filmmakers and feminists before us. A new sort of feminism is thriving,” el-Toukhy advised TheWrap’s Sharon Waxman Thursday following a screening of the movie on the Landmark Theatres in Los Angeles. “Equality is not only enhancing the good in a woman in a film. It’s also daring to depict the bad. What can be seen as radical or controversial about that is that we don’t have enough female characters.”

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The Danish movie stars Dyrholm as Anne, a rich and highly effective lawyer for foster kids, rape victims and extra who takes in her husband’s teenage stepson named Gustav (Gustav Lindh) after he’s been kicked out of his faculty and his mom’s residence in Sweden. After first confronting him about his conduct, Gustav quickly turns into a welcome a part of the household, and Anne slowly warms to him and finally seduces him.

But the second she lastly provides in to her urges is seen in an incredibly express intercourse scene, full with Dyrholm performing oral intercourse on this younger man who continues to be underage. If it feels laborious to observe and makes for a jarring twist within the movie, that’s precisely the purpose.

“I really wanted the audience to hope that they would have sex, hope that they would get each other, even though it was wrong, even though it would create all sorts of problems,” el-Toukhy stated. “And then once that happens, once they get each other, they have sex, it’s so brutal, and it’s so in your face that as an audience member, my ambition was, you start questioning if what you wanted was really what you wanted. You start a moral dialogue with yourself.”

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The explicitness of the intercourse scene additionally prevented romanticizing the connection. With “Queen of Hearts,” el-Toukhy wished to look at the themes of household secrets and techniques and energy buildings. They researched comparable actual tales of academics seducing younger college students or different household drama, they usually discovered that the narrative of a lady partaking in an abusive relationship with a younger man was typically romanticized in comparison with an identical case of a stepfather benefiting from a younger stepdaughter.

“As soon as it becomes a stepmother and stepson, it becomes more complex for most people. There’s a tendency to not take it just as seriously when it’s a young man and not a young woman that’s at stake,” she stated. “The explicitness, for some people it’s hard, for some people it’s shameful to watch, and for some people it’s both, and all that for a film is a good thing to be confronted with that in yourself. It’s not for everyone.”

“Queen of Hearts” goals to right that narrative as Anne’s persistence to take care of her secret slowly corrupts her, destroys her relationship along with her household and even threatens the protection of Gustav. Dyrholm described Anne as by far essentially the most advanced character she’s performed, and the intrigue of the movie lies in how el-Toukhy in a method makes the viewers complicit with Anne’s actions.

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“I imagine that she will not be an evil particular person. She is a human…