Jeppe Rønde’s psychologically complex yet tender drama delves into the world of trauma healing and cults without sensationalism, preferring to raise questions rather than supply answers.
Jeppe Rønde’s psychological drama Acts of Love is a delicate exploration of trauma and how it creates new forms of attachments, showing how traumatized individuals shape new concepts of love, though this devotion, when left uncontrolled, can lead to dangerous or abusive connections. The film premiered in the Harbour section at the International Rotterdam Film Festival .
The story follows Hanna (Cecilie Lassen) who takes refuge in a secluded New Age Christian community, where healing and bonding are practiced in an unconventional manner. Members of the community partake in unusual group activities, including communal love practices meant to bring new life, with the aim of healing trauma. This includes role-playing reenactment of the traumatic event that befell participants in order for them to relive it and hopefully heal from it. Bit by bit, we get to know why Hanna, a former outsider, has joined the commune, and the arrival of her brother Jakob (Jonas Holst Schmidt) further clarifies her history. Jakob, who wants to bring her home, intensifies the plot and adds a new conflict.
He brings an external perspective that invites Hanna to rethink her position in the commune, and to question its practices. His character becomes a mirror to understand Hanna’s past and the life she left behind; he also becomes a disruptor of the group’s practices and nature. The tension Jakob creates raises the film’s main conflict: personal freedom vs. the comfort of belonging. The relationship between the siblings, a key driver of the narrative, carries different layers of suppressed emotions, as she sees the commune as a place of healing, while he sees it as a place of confinement.
The performances in the film transmit this tension to the viewer with emotional depth. Jonas Holst Schmidt, who plays Jakob, exudes desperation and determination to bring his sister home. On the other hand, Cecilie Lassen as Hanna succeeds in making her character feel distant and committed at the same time. Rønde’s direction of the other actors, the supporting cast who are commune members, gives an eerie realism to the plot.
The trauma reenactment scenes are hands-on the most captivating in the film, not just through the carefully directed acting, but in the way the hypnotic camerawork and cinematography brilliantly blur the line between reality and performance, creating a duality in the commune. The dominantly warm and natural lighting creates an atmosphere that is both peaceful and unsettling, giving rise to paradoxical feelings about the commune: it is a place that appears calm, yet harbors hidden conflicts.
At its core, Rønde’s film gently explores belief and how it can reshape one’s personal identity. Hanna, who was once an outsider, is now immersed in an institutionalised system where faith, love, and trauma recovery are intertwined. The development of Hannah’s character suggests that belief is not just about religion but satisfying one’s need for connection and meaning. This need is satisfied by the commune’s rituals, which can be either a source of comfort or a tool of control, encouraging the audience to draw their own conclusions about the nature of belief and manipulation. Planting Hanna in this closed world, Rønde challenges, and also converses with, viewers to ask whether this radical transformation is a personal choice or rather the result of indoctrination.
Despite the heaviness of the topic, Acts of Love does not aim to shock but rather to provoke and examine the line between faith and manipulation, devotion and sometimes delusion. This is obvious in his restrained storytelling approach, possibly coming from his background as a documentary filmmaker. The film does not condemn its characters but instead presents their choices as part of a larger paradox and a more complex human struggle. Instead of framing the commune and its raw practices as misguided or dangerous, he leaves room for ambiguity, and space for the viewers to debate whether the group is cult-like or simply another new age therapeutic gathering, building thriller and drama at the same time.
Director: Jeppe Rønde
Cast: Cecilie Lassen, Jonas Holst Schmidt, Ann Eleonora Jørgensen, Miilu Lindberg Boassen, Connie Kristoffersen, Henrik Birch
Screenplay: Jeppe Rønde, Christopher Grøndal
Cinematography: Jacob Møller
Editing: Theis Schmidt, Olivier Bugge Coutté
Production design: Simone Grau Roney
Producer: Julie Friis Walenciak, Siri Dynesen
Sound design: Rune Palving, Lars Halvorsen
Music: Sune Køter Kølster
Production company: Paloma Productions
Sales / World rights holder: TrustNordisk
In Danish
120 minutes
