From its visually stunning opening credits, which show women dancing through a forest to musical rhythms that sound almost primal, to its quiet, heartbreaking final frame, Mona Fastvold’s historical rendering of the Shaker religious movement is an experience that will stay with me for a long time.
While some viewers may find the slow pacing of The Testament of Ann Lee a bit demanding for a musical, to me, it only underscored the boldness and ambition of the unfolding story on screen. Amanda Seyfried held me in a trance from start to finish as Ann Lee, the founder of Shakerism. Her beautiful voice, accompanied by raw, thrilling music and choreography, reminded me that she is not only an incredibly expressive actress but also a phenomenal singer.
Some early scenes are so brutal and explicit that they are borderline horror. In my opinion, their sole narrative purpose is to illustrate how her childhood aversion to marital intimacy strengthened over time, ultimately setting the tone for her radical religious beliefs as she discovered her unique bond with God.
Both the film and my own Internet research indicate that Ann Lee was likely the first woman to claim to be the female embodiment of the second coming of Christ. Her devotion was expressed through ecstatic singing and dancing, practices that the residents of her hometown, Manchester, viewed with deep hostility. Accused of blasphemy, she was imprisoned several times in Great Britain. This relentless persecution eventually drove her to emigrate to America, where she hoped to find fertile ground to plant the seeds of her new doctrine.
Radical for the 18th century, Lee preached gender and racial equality while attempting to build a utopian society on American soil. Her community condemned slavery and actively welcomed people of color as equals, even requiring new American converts to free any enslaved people they owned. The Shakers also traded with and learned from Native Americans. True to their pacifist beliefs, they refused to take sides in the American Revolution, a stance that ultimately landed Ann in an American prison for six months.
I am not a religious person at all. I’m an atheist through and through. Yet, even from a non-believer’s standpoint, I couldn’t help but feel a profound admiration for what Ann Lee tried to accomplish. In a world completely dominated by men, and despite facing brutal persecution across two continents, she held fast to her vision of a better world.
Through The Testament of Ann Lee, Mona Fastvold has crafted a gorgeous piece of cinema filled with haunting imagery and musical sounds. While the film may not appeal to everyone, Fastvold’s original take on a forgotten piece of religious history will deeply resonate with anyone who gathers the patience to experience it.
By pure coincidence, last Sunday I found myself crying at the end of Anora, a movie about a sex worker. Exactly one week later, I found myself crying my heart out again at a movie about a literal saint who believed sexual relations were what separated people from God. I didn’t know what to expect when I started The Testament of Ann Lee, but I certainly did not expect it to affect me this much. Life and movies are surprising in that way.
