QUEEN OF HEARTS

This year’s Danish entry for the 2020 Academy Awards Foreign Language category, May El-Toukhy’s family drama QUEEN OF HEARTS explores the complex consequences of family interaction.

As a mother of twin daughters, Anne (Trine Dyrholm) seems to be the right candidate as a lawyer who deals exclusively with children and teenagers who are facing up to difficult situations on a variety of levels. Her relationship with her husband, Peter (Magnus Krepper) is passable but has its’ own share of complications, not least in his stepson Gustav (Gustav Lindh) , who arrives to stay with the family for a summer so he can continue his education and avoid some of the juvenile problems that have arisen from the after-effects of his parents’ separation.

Anne is certainly doing her best to offer him some additional support, but as the relationship evolves in this new context, sudden emotional and sexual needs heighten and envelope her own personal desires, which complicate the immediate relationships and world she inhabits.

The films of Lars Von Trier give audiences a sense that Danish cinema does go a little deeper than some other cultures when it comes to honest emotional and sexual reflection – and QUEEN OF HEARTS is another film that will certainly provide a more tender and forthright attitude to the family unit in cinematic terms.

Reference to ALICE IN WONDERLAND is inherent throughout as Anne and Gustav read the story to the young girls, but for Anne, this is a challenging world without wonder at times, only honest and brutal realities from her own life experience, reflecting the evolving emotions of a working mother who needs fulfilment on a variety of levels.

Simplicity in drama will always yield strong dividends and amidst an occasional but very explicit sex scene, there is grounded truth in what all the characters feel in the film, complimenting a very solid structure of human relationships.

Reminiscent in tone of the acclaimed Mads Mikkelsen film THE HUNT, QUEEN OF HEARTS overall is intelligently-conceived and shows the impact of conflict and consequence, right through to the very end of the film. It also focuses on the essence of honesty between children and adults, the law-abiding and law-abusing – and who to take a side with, which often is overlooked in dramatic cinema for the cheap moment and thrill.

Good performances from the lead actors provide assured confidence in a film that will hit the right note with foreign film fans.

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