Visual artist and filmmaker Jesper Just is making his feature-film debut with Incidents of Intimacy, the second Danish feature film to emerge from the DOGMA 25 initiative (read news), a psychological drama exploring emotional repression as well as the fragile boundaries between intimacy and control, starring Trine Dyrholm, Christian Slater and Dree Hemingway.

The film follows Linda, an intimacy coordinator who struggles to acknowledge and access her own feelings. Unable to establish close personal connections, she constructs an alternative form of intimacy by stealing objects from other people instead of getting close to them. After having emotional reactions through the objects, she files them in an archive of intimacy in her cupboard. When a triangular relationship appears, it destabilizes her system, causing emotions to detach from their origins and circulate independently. Gradually, the objects take on a life of their own and the control she’s been holding on to slips through her fingers. Linda’s carefully controlled world is turned into a site of emotional horror as a new reality dawns, created and dominated by autonomous feelings.

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Dyrholm, whose career spans more than three decades, has established herself as one of Denmark’s most acclaimed actresses, winner of the Berlinale Silver Bear for The Commune acclaimed in Queen of Hearts and The Girl with the Needle, among other titles, and seen this year in The Guest. She stars opposite Slater, who received a Golden Globe Award for the series Mr Robot and appeared in Nymphomaniac and more recently, in If I Had Legs I'd Kick You. The cast is completed by Hemingway (Starlet) and Danish actors Johannes Lilleøre (Esther’s Orchestra, series Borgen), Julie Agnete Vang (The Commune), Laura Drasbæk and Michael Moritzen, both seen in the series The Killing).

Over the past two decades, Jesper Just has gained international recognition as an artist for his work – across film, performance and installation – exploring conventional representations of gender, love, social norms and the body. His works are held in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Guggenheim Museum, the Museum of Modern Art in New York and Tate Modern, among other institutions. Just co-wrote the screenplay with Sissel Dalsgaard Thomsen, whose credits include Kalak and The Quiet Migration.

The Danish DOGMA 25 projects are financed through a collaboration between Copenhagen-based Zentropa Entertainments, Danish public broadcaster DR and Nordisk Film Distribution, with Netflix also contributing to the core financing in the Nordic territories. Incidents of Intimacy additionally received support from the Danish Film Institute, the Eastern Denmark Film Fund and the Nordisk Film & TV Fond. Nordisk Film Distribution will handle the film’s theatrical distribution, followed by streaming on Netflix in the Nordic countries and broadcast on DR. International sales are handled by TrustNordisk. The film is expected to be released in cinemas in 2027.