Queen at Sea (2026)
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
- As dementia erodes a woman's ability to communicate her inner life, her husband and daughter struggle to act in her best interest, navigating love and the fragile boundaries between care, protection, and autonomy.
- Actors:
- Mohammad Amiri, Lolabelle Backus, Noah Hunt Basden, Juliette Binoche, Anna Calder-Marshall, Yasmin Campbell, Tom Courtenay, Steven Cree, Joe Horsford, Florence Hunt, Michelle Jeram, Michelle Kelly, Cody Molko, Alison Pargeter, Jean Pemberton, Elizabeth Rushbrook, Liani Samuel
- Directors:
- Lance Hammer
- Producers:
- Tristan Goligher
- Writers:
- Lance Hammer
- Aka:
- Rainha no Mar
- Genres:
- Drama
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Reviews (1) of Queen at Sea
No Rudder, No Right Answer - Queen at Sea review by griggs
Nobody in this film is clearly the villain, which makes it hard to watch.
Queen at Sea leaves everyone at sea. Lance Hammer gives us a mother deep in dementia and two people trying to do right by her. Every time Juliette Binoche's Amanda tries to protect her mother Leslie, something goes missing: privacy, familiarity, choice. Doing nothing is a decision too, which is the cruel part. Tom Courtenay's Martin is loving, defensive, selfish and frightened, sometimes within one minute. Leslie has few words left, so we squint at every flicker of Anna Calder-Marshall's face, pretending we've cracked the code.
I have friends who discovered a parent with dementia was still sexually active when care home staff told them they were dealing with an STI outbreak. The film gets uncomfortably close to the questions no handbook covers: desire, consent, safeguarding. Hammer keeps it plain, which makes the bleakness sting.
It piles crisis on crisis, and Hammer keeps pressing on the ambiguity long after it has landed. Still, it got under my skin. Leslie can't say where she wants to go, and nobody has a rudder.