Queen of Hearts
Queen of Hearts (, The Queen) is a 2019 Danish drama film directed by May el-Toukhy, and starring Trine Dyrholm and Gustav Lindh. The Danish and English film titles obliquely refer to the Queen of Hearts character in the children's book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland which is mentioned repeatedly in the film. The film was selected as the Danish entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 92nd Academy Awards, though it was not nominated. The film won the 2019 Nordic Council Film Prize.
Plot
Anne is a lawyer working on three cases of rape and violent abuse of young women. She is married to a physician, Peter, and they have two young, twin daughters, Frida and Fanny. Peter's teenage son from his past marriage is Gustav, who lives in Sweden with his mother Rebecca. The family plans for Gustav to move in with Anne and Peter. Gustav arrives and Anne flirts with him. Gustav begins to have conflicts with Peter, pushing to move out on his own despite being a minor. One day, Anne returns home to find there has been a burglary. The incident is reported to the police, but afterwards Anne finds an item in Gustav's laundry that was in her bag, stolen during the break-in. She realizes that Gustav was responsible for the robbery and confronts him with the evidence. Anne promises to keep the matter a secret if Gustav does his part in the household. From then on, Gustav joins in the social life of the family, for instance reading the Danish version of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland for the twin girls, which Anne herself also does.