The feature film "The Hypnosis", a debut by young Swedish director Ernst de Geer, premiered at the 57th Karlovy Vary Film Festival in 2023. The film follows the young couple Vera (Asta Kamma August) and André (Herbert Nordrum), entrepreneurs who get the opportunity to present their application regarding women's reproductive health at a start-up in front of investors. In the same period, Vera goes through hypnotherapy to quit smoking, but instead of quitting smoking, she experiences a radical change in behavior.

In this impersonal environment, Vera's unpredictability becomes a challenge to the couple's personal relationship, as well as to their professional connection. The business strategy of the protagonist is nothing more than a calculated tactic in which it is known exactly which narrative brings bonus points. Vera does not present herself as a woman with a health problem; she sells herself as such, while André plays the role of an empathetic feminist. For the application, they choose a topic that signals social awareness, guarantees media attention, investment and capital at a time when women's rights are used as currency.

The director builds the world using static and wider shots, composed so that the characters serve geometric precision. Neutral color tones, beige, gray, blue, reflect Scandinavian minimalism. Simple costumes, formal attire, sterile spaces of hotel rooms and conference rooms, confirm the absence of personal touch and re-sell the authenticity of the artificiality of the world in which they reside. Often present silence or ambient sounds are crucial to highlight unpleasant situations.

The film grows into a series of events that balance black comedy and an unsettling experiment over the viewer's patience. This feeling, known in slang as “cringe”, comes not from Vera's alleged problematic behaviour – but from the fact that she is the only one who refuses to play a role in this unwritten protocol of social acceptability. Vera pretends to have a dog, to which everyone instinctively agrees without question. However, when she goes a step further and accuses the other person of stepping on her nonexistent dog, the situation exceeds the limit of acceptable absurdity, revealing how much everyone around her is willing to participate in a collective illusion. Specific Scandinavian humour, subtle and restrained, only further intensifies the feeling of authentic discomfort. The characters don't struggle to make a real change – they just adapt to the new shape of the same mold, pretending to step out of their comfort zone while being trapped in it.

Despite the slow pace, the subtle, precise direction, layered characters, as well as the balance between satire and discomfort, make Geer's film rank high among the existing ones in contemporary Scandinavian cinema. Self-actualization is the thematic framework of the film and occurs as a side effect of releasing expectations. Vera, as a character, undergoes a transformation, but the Hypnosis unfortunately fails to offer a deeper insight into her inner motives, which is why the end can act as a result of randomness.

At the top of Maslow's hierarchy, where the quest for self-realisation begins, Vera arrives not by fulfilling needs, but by guiding a non-existent dog, which is the final indicator that the illusion of social identity is more acceptable than its truth.