‘Cute’ Trailer Reveals Danish Drama Tackling Sexual Taboos Ahead of San Sebastian Premiere

Danish filmmaker Marlene Emilie Lyngstad is making her feature directorial debut with ‘Cute’, a provocative drama exploring forbidden desire, loneliness and moral ambiguity. The film premieres at the San Sebastian Film Festival this week.

The Hollywood Reporter has released the first trailer for the Danish-Norwegian-Swedish production. ‘Cute’ will compete in the New Directors section at San Sebastian, running from September 18 to 26.

Written by Lyngstad and Emilie Koefoed Larsen, the film follows Richard, a man struggling with troubling feelings toward his girlfriend’s seven-year-old daughter. He ends the relationship and retreats to his childhood home, intending to renovate and sell it.

His solitary plans derail when he meets Stella, his mother’s caregiver. As the two grow closer, Richard discovers she lives a secret life as a Lolita camgirl. Their relationship evolves into something complicated a surrogate father-daughter dynamic that forces both to confront their loneliness and unresolved emotional wounds.

Things become more fraught when Richard’s former stepdaughter attempts to reconnect. The film uses this reunion to examine the blurred lines between affection, innocence and disturbing forms of attraction.

Norwegian actor Jan Gunnar Røise plays Richard, with emerging actor Gina Jaqueline as Stella. The supporting cast includes Kitt Maiken Mortensen, Karin Bertling and Molly Kirk Rasmussen.

Røise previously collaborated with Lyngstad on her 2023 short ‘Norwegian Offspring’, which won the La Cinef First Prize at Cannes and later took home awards at the Norwegian International Film Festival and Nordisk Panorama.

Lyngstad, born in Oslo in 1997 and now based in Denmark, graduated from the National Film School of Denmark in 2023. Her earlier work includes ‘Lakenfort’, ‘Onanerende Subjekter’, ‘Veggdyr’ and the documentary short ‘Finale’. ‘Cute’ Trailer Reveals Danish Drama Tackling Sexual Taboos Ahead of San Sebastian Premiere

Originally titled ‘Great Acts of Humiliation’, the project earned Lyngstad and producer Carl Osbæck Adelkilde the Nordic Talents Pitch Prize in 2023, followed by a Talent Village Award at Les Arcs.

‘Cute’ is produced by Nordisk Film Production, with Nordisk Film Production Sverige and Film i Väst as co-producers. Support came from the Danish Film Institute’s New Danish Screen scheme, Norwegian broadcaster NRK, Amarcord and Nordisk Film Distribution.

TrustNordisk is handling international sales, while Nordisk Film Distribution manages domestic distribution.

Lyngstad has described the film as an exploration of one of humanity’s most disturbing areas examining tenderness, loneliness and moral uncertainty. With its San Sebastian debut approaching, ‘Cute’ stands as one of this year’s most challenging entries in the New Directors lineup.