'Cute' director addresses reaction to controversial love story at San Sebastian
Danish director Marlene Emilie Lyngstad has addressed early responses to Cute, her first full-length film, ahead of its world premiere at the San Sebastián International Film Festival in Spain.
Speaking to Variety in an interview published on 24 September, Lyngstad said she welcomed debate around the Danish drama. “I find it interesting and exciting that the film creates such strong reactions,” she told Variety.
The story follows Richard, who is attracted to his girlfriend’s seven-year-old daughter. He leaves the relationship and hides away in his old childhood home. There he meets Stella, his mother’s caregiver, who likes to behave like a little girl.
The film is never explicit. That is Lyngstad’s description, given to Variety.
Lyngstad said the film is about the guilt of someone living with an unwanted attraction who is determined not to act on it. It is not, she said, about the guilt of someone who has abused a child. She described Cute as a love story about two adults, each broken in their own way, who long to be loved unconditionally.
For general viewers, that distinction matters to how the director frames the film. She presents Richard and Stella as consenting adults. The focus, in her account, is their need for acceptance rather than any act of abuse.
The cast is led by Jan Gunnar Røise, alongside Karin Bertling, Kitt Maiken Mortensen and Molly Kirk Rasmussen, according to Variety. Newcomer Gina Jaqueline plays Stella. Røise previously worked with Lyngstad on her graduation film Norwegian Offspring.
Jaqueline had no formal acting training before Cute. Lyngstad first met her while doing research for the script, and Jaqueline joined the project as a consultant during development. During that research, Jaqueline spoke to Lyngstad about her own experience with OnlyFans, the subscription site where creators sell photos and videos directly to followers, and the online erotic market.
Cute will screen in New Directors, the San Sebastián section reserved for first-time feature directors, as reported by Variety. The festival staging is the film’s world premiere, its first public screening, according to sales company TrustNordisk. The project previously won the top prize at Nordic Talents, an annual event for emerging filmmakers from the Nordic region.
Lyngstad and Jaqueline also discussed the film with The Hollywood Reporter in an interview published on 20 September. The trade paper had earlier unveiled the first trailer for the debut feature.
Cute was produced by Nordisk Film Production A/S in Denmark, with co-production by Nordisk Film Production AB, Film I Väst and Amarcord. International sales, meaning the licensing of distribution rights to buyers in different countries, are handled by TrustNordisk.
