A musical about the Shaker founder that turns religious ecstasy into a visceral experience
In short: Mona Fastvold’s 2025 film explores the life of Ann Lee, the 18th-century leader who founded the Shaker sect. Starring Amanda Seyfried, the movie reimagines Lee’s journey from a traumatized cotton worker to a self-proclaimed female Messiah, utilizing experimental song and dance to capture the intensity of her spiritual conviction.
The film traces Lee’s transformation after she experiences a vision while imprisoned for disturbing the peace in Britain. Convinced that original sin was fornication, she mandates celibacy for her followers and leads them to New England. The narrative follows their struggle to establish a community in Niskayuna, New York, amidst external persecution and internal fractures, including the departure of her husband, Abraham, and the eventual death of her brother, William.
Director Mona Fastvold and co-writer Brady Corbet crafted the project as a musical drama, a choice that critics noted as an unlikely but effective vehicle for the story. Composer Daniel Blumberg integrated original Shaker hymns into the score, while choreographer Celia Rowlson-Hall helped shape the film’s physical language. Seyfried’s performance, which involved animalistic vocalizations and intense emotional range, received widespread acclaim, with many reviewers labeling it a career-best effort that avoids the sensationalism often applied to religious figures.
Shot on 35 mm film in Budapest, the production emphasizes a raw, tactile aesthetic. Fastvold sought to depict the realities of Lee’s life—including the infancy deaths of her four children—with unflinching directness. The film premiered at the 82nd Venice International Film Festival and earned positive critical reception for its ambitious tone, which balances historical drama with the rhapsodic, often alienating nature of religious fervor. It stands as a rare, high-stakes exploration of faith that demands the audience engage with Lee on her own singular terms.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: The Testament of Ann Lee
- Also: Wikidata — The Testament of Ann Lee · CC0
- Also: Wikidata — The Testament of Ann Lee · CC0
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