Hypnotherapist Kate lives happily with her husband, Orla, and their daughter, Athena, while simultaneously maintaining a deeply romantic relationship with Andreas. After years of secrecy, contradictions and forbidden feelings, the fragile balance of her choices begins to collapse and she is forced to confront her double life. Caught in a turbulent chaos of societal norms, body fluids, mythology, shame, laughter, intimacy and madness, Kate embarks on an existential and clumsy struggle to redefine love. Who will catch her if she falls?

This is the synopsis for Brave New Love, the second feature by Swedish-Danish director Maria Bäck, the world premiere of which is taking place in competition at the upcoming Locarno Film Festival (5-15 August).

"There are many rules and expectations attached to romantic love. With Brave New Love, I wanted to explore these ideas through wit and sensuality. I also wanted to play with our old structures and automatic reactions, both in ourselves as spectators and in the language of the film. Blending realism and authenticity with a subjective, personal, unconscious layer - my ambition has been to create an experience of living through Kate’s mind and musicality. I wanted the film to be like her," the director explains.

With a background of poetry, dance, journalism, photography and psychology, Bäck has directed two documentaries (short film Mother is God, 2013, and I Remember When I Die, 2016) and a first fiction feature, Psychosis in Stockholm. Brave New Love, which she is also expanding into a novel, is her second fiction feature, and she is currently developing her fourth feature.

The film stars Kathrine Thorborg Johansen, Anders Danielsen Lie, Simon Sears, Noemi Carbone Mannov and Angeliki Papoulia. The film is a co-production between Denmark, Sweden and Greece, with Anna-Maria Kantarius producing for Snowglobe, and co-production from Mimmi Spång for Garagefilm International AB and Konstantinos Vassilaros StudioBauhaus, Anne-Marie Söhrman Fermelin for Film Stockholm, and Maria Bäck herself. International sales are handled by Finland's Reinvent Yellow.

Check out our exclusive poster below: