De Geer’s The Hypnosis is the latest addition to cool Nordic cinema’s current wave of biting social satire.
Prepare to gasp out loud and to check your own moral compass with the directorial debut of Ernst De Geer’s The Hypnosis.
Vera (Asta Kamma August) and André (Herbert Nordrum, from The Worst Person in the World) are committed to each other and to their start-up business, a women’s health care app. After being invited to participate in a set of exclusive seminars for would-be-entrepreneurs, Vera decides she would like to ‘better’ herself by using hypnotherapy to quit smoking. What begins as minor social faux pas (pouring herself a drink from a bar, exposing a white lie) escalates into a series of darkly comedic, cringe-inducing encounters centred on people behaving badly, and an invisible chihuahua.
Featuring a finely honed script by De Geer and co-writer, Mads Stegger, outstanding performances and an atmospheric, tension-building score, De Geer’s The Hypnosis is the latest addition to cool Nordic cinema’s current wave of biting social satire.
“… a witty, incisive satire on the modern obsession with self-actualization.” (Variety)
“… satirical commentary on conformity and relationships that benefits from razor-sharp comic dialogue and superb performances by its two leads.” (The Hollywood Reporter)
“First-time director Ernst De Geer … wastes no time establishing a simple fact: he is out there to make people feel … Awkward. Embarrassed. Embarrassed about feeling embarrassed.” (Cineuropa)