Sundance drama “Queen of Hearts” sees Anne (Trine Dyrholm), a happy lawyer, wife, and mother, upending her life and entering into an affair — with her husband’s troubled son, no less. A trailer just dropped for the pic.
“So are we his family now?” Anne’s daughter asks when Gustav (Gustav Lindh) moves in. “We always have been,” Anne replies. But that doesn’t seem to be quite true: Gustav’s father (Magnus Krepper) thinks his son hates him, and Gustav’s half-siblings barely know him.
Whatever tension there is between Gustav and his dad, he gets along well with Anne, his stepmother. She even agrees to participate in a favorite hobby of Gustav’s: recorded interviews. Soon his innocuous questions — such as “What is your favorite color?” — become much more personal. He asks her who she first had sex with and what she fears most in the world. The two grow closer and it’s not long before Anne crosses the line with Gustav, becoming his lover.
“Sometimes what happens and what must never happen are the same thing,” Anne says during one of the interviews. Anne knows what she’s doing is wrong and could ruin her life — and Gustav’s, too — but she’s doing it anyway.
May el-Toukhy directed “Queen of Hearts” and penned the script with Maren Louise Käehne. Romantic ensemble dramedy “Long Story Short” and episodes of “Ride Upon the Storm” and “The Legacy” are among el-Toukhy’s previous credits.
“Queen of Hearts” will make its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on Saturday, January 26 as part of the World Cinema Dramatic Competition. It will open in its native Denmark March 28.
