Denmark, Norway
2026 | 106 min. | Fiction

Troubled by forbidden feelings for his seven-year-old stepdaughter, Richard decides to leave his girlfriend.
He retreats to his childhood home to renovate it ahead of its sale, but his self-imposed exile is disrupted by the childlike presence of his mother's caregiver, Stella. He soon discovers her double life as a Lolita camgirl, and the two develop a transgressive surrogate father-daughter relationship. Their constructed reality begins to unravel when the stepdaughter he left behind reaches out.

Directed by: Marlene Emilie Lyngstad
Written by: Marlene Emilie Lyngstad, Emilie Kofoed Larsen
Produced by: Carl Osbæck Adelkilde, Kristina Börjeson, Thomas Robsahm
Cinematography: Thomas Dyrholm
Editing: Carl Gustav Nordentoft
Production Design: Sara Helene Tilgaard Rasmussen
Costume Design: Diana Dybkær
Make-Up & Hair: Maria Kai
Sound: Emil Salling
Casting: Gro Therp
Cast: Jan Gunnar Røise (Richard), Gina Jaqueline (Stella), Kitt Makien Mortensen (Helle), Karin Bertling (Lillian)

Statement of the director:
I have accepted that I am unable to ignore the things that scare and sadden me. This is why, through my films, I attempt to reshape apathy and melancholia into curiosity. Something that especially scares me is the blurred line between romantic love and fetishisation.
CUTE is an attempt to examine this line. It is a story of two people who, more than anything, long for authentic intimacy, but who can’t avoid humiliating each other in their pursuit of it.

Although the western world has become more tolerant of sexual taboos, adult attraction to children continues to be (for good reason) a huge social stigma. Nevertheless, we know the phenomenon exists and that the growth of the internet has created new ways of pursuing it. Production and sharing of sexualised material involving children has become a genuine social issue. On top of this unambiguous problem, the internet has also created a world of grey areas where fantasies can be lived out without directly involving a child. I am interested in the discussion of these grey areas involving the part of the population that suffers from paedophilia, who do not want to perpetrate abuse. How do you live with a shame that you know is justified? This is an existential question that moves me deeply. Apart from the main story about two individuals, I wish to bring attention to the world they live in. Does the present pop-cultural obsession with everything “cute” indicate a collective longing for and lack of innocence, care and emotional intimacy?
Through the film’s use of spaces (a sock factory, shopping centres, the internet), I aim to hint at the way greater forces affect the individual, even in the most intimate spaces. Richard and Stella are both characters who are good at acting. I therefore had to look for actors with the ability to act on two levels: They had to be authentic in the part their character is playing, while also expressing the vulnerability and brokenness underneath.
I had already collaborated with Jan Gunnar on my graduation film from the National Film School, NORWEGIAN OFFSPRING, where we devised a character who was socially deviant, to put it mildly. This time we wanted to go in the opposite direction. We wanted to create a character who has spent his life acquiring normality. Jan Gunnar has a unique ability to care for and take responsibility for his coworkers.
We applied this ability when developing Richard. We wanted to make him polite, well-dressed, well-educated, well-spoken, affluent, a “pleaser” – in many ways what I consider the stereotypical Norwegian. Beneath the surface is a restlessness. The character is never at rest. He needs to redecorate, cook, cater to others, prove his goodness. During the process, I have met with and spoken to multiple so-called “non-practicing paedophiles”. What surprised me the most by far was their longing to talk about themselves. Even though they lived with great shame, many of them had an almost self-destructive urge to confide, both to their loved ones and to me, a stranger. This despite the obvious risk it entails. It was sometimes unclear to me whether they sought acceptance or punishment through the confessions. The idea of a non-practicing paedophile yearning for judgment became the key to the character of Richard.
My hunt for the character of Stella started with an examination of “age-play”, a BDSM subculture focusing on the power dynamics of a caregiver and a “little”. I was moved by witnessing the boiled-down longing for nurture and freedom of responsibility inherent in the role of a “little”, and I decided to use the sexual roleplay as a dramatic device.
At the other end of the spectrum, I was looking for adults who utilise the “cute” aesthetic to shape their identity. It was in this context that I contacted Gina Jaqueline. When Gina told me that she, like Stella, sells videos and photos on the OnlyFans platform, I brought her on as a kind of project consultant. As such, she was involved with the development of Stella from an early stage, and later in the process she was invited to a casting. Gina was a natural at expressing the performative side of Stella, but the thing that convinced me was her unique ability to also bring vulnerability and darkness to the character. That was why, after an extensive casting process with actors and other amateurs, we ended up giving the part to Gina. The collaboration with Gina turned out to be incredibly stimulating. She is analytical, playful and risk-taking, and she has an uncanny ability to surprise me with her take on a scene: the capacity to give me what I didn’t know I wanted.
I have tried to make a film that neither romanticises nor demonises. Instead, I have been concerned with examining “the inevitable”. The film is my attempt to deal with aspects of life that are difficult. I hope it will disturb some and comfort others. My wish is that the audience will leave disagreeing on whether they just witnessed a story of love or perversion.

Production:
Nordisk FIlm Production A/S
https://nordiskfilm.com

World Sales:
TRUSTNordisk
https://trustnordisk.com