San Sebastian audiences must reckon with a polarising debut, after director Marlene Emilie Lyngstad cast OnlyFans creator Gina Jaqueline as the unsettling centre of Cute, a Nordisk Film Production that earned a slot in the festival’s New Directors selection.
Lyngstad told reporters she arrived at the screening nervous, acknowledging the film "divides the audience," and that she worried whether viewers would understand the intention or see the work as provocation. Festival chief José Luis Rebordinos, Lyngstad said, recognised her aims and awarded the film a coveted New Directors screening.
Cute follows Richard, played by Jan Gunnar Røise, a man troubled by forbidden attraction to his seven-year-old stepdaughter. He leaves his girlfriend and retreats to his childhood home, where the presence of Stella, his mother’s caregiver, unsettles his exile. Stella, whose double life as a Lolita camgirl is revealed, and Richard form a transgressive surrogate father-daughter relationship.
The film does not sanitise that relationship. Scenes include Richard clinging to a frilly pink sock as he sleeps, pleasuring himself to the child’s voice, and infantilising Stella by feeding her and brushing her teeth. Lyngstad said the material grew from an interest in age play observed during work on her 2023 short, Norwegian Offspring, where she encountered a woman in the BDSM community whose emotional motives surprised her.
Lyngstad cast Jaqueline after a wide search for actors who could handle the delicate, disturbing material. Jaqueline, a social media influencer and OnlyFans creator, makes her acting debut as Stella, and Lyngstad said the performer brought an unnerving authenticity because elements of the role reflected Jaqueline’s real-life persona. The director also used items from Jaqueline’s apartment on screen, including a cat robe and objects from the actor’s self-described "cute" collection.
Jaqueline said the film’s emotional connection between Stella and Richard felt more challenging than the fetishised age play, quoting, "I can play around with things, but to mix the age play with feelings, I wouldn't personally do it in my real life." She added that she "really adored playing with Jan" but found it hard to sympathise with his character.
Lyngstad and Jaqueline both emphasised they are not asking audiences to like or approve Richard’s desires. The director said she left the film deliberately open-ended so viewers would carry questions, warning that ignoring these topics only allows them to grow "undercover and get worse for people." The film’s reception at San Sebastian will test whether that provocation prompts engagement or walkouts.
