Queen at Sea premiered at Berlinale 2026, where Anna Calder-Marshall and Tom Courtenay won Silver Bears for their supporting performances. Written and directed by Lance Hammer – his first feature since 2008’s Ballast – the film follows Amanda (Juliette Binoche), a divorced middle-aged mother trying to care for her teenage daughter, Sara (Florence Hunt), while confronting the decline of her own mother, Leslie, who has dementia. Calder-Marshall and Courtenay play Leslie and her husband, Martin, Amanda’s stepfather.
At times harrowing, Queen At Sea reworks the familiar contours of the dementia drama, a genre that has produced acclaimed films such as Amour (2012), Still Alice (2014), and The Father (2020). What sets Queen At Sea apart is its focus on sexual consent and desire in people living with dementia. As Martin continues to have sex with Leslie, Amanda begins to question whether her mother is capable of giving meaningful consent and eventually calls the police. From there, we see Leslie’s sexual desires persist, even as her ability to regulate or articulate them slips away. Hammer handles this deeply sensitive material with care, exploring its moral, legal, and emotional complexities without simplifying them. Martin emerges as both a devoted caregiver and a man whose certainty that he knows what is best for his wife leads him into troubling territory.
The film also makes room for the younger generation through Leslie’s granddaughter, Sara, who is starting to explore her own sexuality. She falls in with a new group of classmates and starts dating James, with whom she has her first sexual experience. Although this subplot mirrors the film’s wider exploration of desire and consent, it does not always feel fully integrated into the main story and can seem slightly superfluous.
Even so, Queen at Sea is a bleak, powerful, and painfully believable portrait of dementia’s impact on the person diagnosed with it and on everyone around them. Watching the strain, fear, and ethical uncertainty faced by carers unfold on screen is devastating. The film also points to the crushing burden of care in a capitalistic, class-driven society where support systems are too often insufficient or out of reach for those who need them most. Bring tissues; you will need them. Recommended.
Why should public libraries add this movie to their shelves?
Queen at Sea is an intense, thought-provoking family drama that deserves to be widely accessible, particularly for viewers interested in stories about dementia, caregiving, and family conflict.
Is this drama a good fit for campus screenings?
Yes. Queen at Sea opens up rich discussions around consent, ageing, and the ethics of intimate relationships.
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