Director: Ernst De Geer
A quiet retreat meant to help entrepreneurs open up unravels into something far more chaotic once one hypnotherapy session convinces Vera she no longer needs to hide anything, in this dark comedy from director Ernst De Geer.
What is The Hypnosis about?
Vera arrives at a wellness gathering alongside her partner André, expecting the usual mix of networking, forced sincerity, and self-improvement talk that defines these entrepreneur circles. A session with a hypnotherapist changes the equation entirely: whatever social filter kept Vera polite and agreeable simply switches off, and she starts saying exactly what she thinks to exactly the people she used to flatter. The film follows the fallout across the rest of the retreat, as her sudden bluntness exposes how much of the group's warmth was performance in the first place. Rather than building toward a single explosive confrontation, the story lets discomfort accumulate scene by scene, each interaction peeling back another layer of the group's carefully maintained image.
Cast & crew
Asta Kamma August plays Vera, with Herbert Nordrum as André; the wider ensemble, including Julien Combes and Andrea Edwards, rounds out the retreat's cast of entrepreneurs whose composure gets tested by Vera's new candor.
Context & significance
The film is a co-production between France, Norway, and Sweden, and it uses the retreat setting the way a lot of workplace satire does — as a pressure-cooker where politeness is really a form of currency, and removing the filter that produces that politeness turns out to be its own kind of disruption. It runs a shade under 100 minutes, a length that keeps the escalation tight rather than letting the premise stretch thin, and the retreat's isolated setting means there's nowhere for the other guests to retreat to once Vera stops performing on their behalf. The result plays less like a redemption arc and more like a slow, uncomfortable audit of everyone else's manners.
Where & how to watch
The Hypnosis streams on K-Time with Persian subtitles; log in with a free account to watch, and enjoy a Farsi-language interface built for Persian-speaking viewers navigating an international festival title like this one.