Film

The Girl King

Name: The Girl King
Genre: Drama, History, Romance
Released: 2015
Cast: Malin Buska, Sarah Gadon, Michael Nyqvist, Lucas Bryant, Laura Birn

Drama

The Girl King is a baroque historical drama about Queen Kristina of Sweden, a brilliant, restless woman who inherited a throne as a child and spent her reign butting heads with her advisors while wrestling with her own identity and desires. It's lush and theatrical, all velvet and intrigue, made for people who love the texture of court politics and sympathetic portraits of women trapped by their own power.

TMDb rating

3.1

If you liked this

The Favourite2018

A queen and her intimates locked in baroque court intrigue, all costumes and power games. Like The Girl King, it uses sexual and romantic tension as a language for political struggle, with a female monarch at the centre of her own story.

But Tonally it's much darker and meaner than The Girl King—less romantic, more caustic. If you want sympathy for your heroine, this won't give it to you.

Marie Antoinette2006

Sofia Coppola's dreamy, maximalist take on a queen doomed by duty and incomprehension. Like Kristina, Marie is brilliant and restless, trapped by the weight of a crown and the men who hold the real power around her.

But It's deliberately anachronistic and sometimes feels more like a daydream than a drama. If you want historical accuracy or a tight narrative, you'll find it frustrating.

The Crown2016

Ten hours per season of a woman learning to rule while her private self wars with her public duty. Elizabeth and Kristina are centuries apart but psychologically kindred—brilliant, lonely, and constantly underestimated by the men advising them.

But It's a long commitment, and the early seasons can feel slow. Also, it privileges spectacle and conjecture over rigorous history—if that bothers you, it will keep bothering you.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Girl King

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Babette's Feast1987

Both films use restraint and refinement as their language—the drama lives in what's held back, not what explodes on screen. Both are about women carving out spaces of autonomy and intellectual freedom in worlds determined to constrain them.

A Danish masterpiece about a woman who pours her identity into an exquisite meal. Like Kristina, it's about brilliant creative energy straining against the limits of where a woman is permitted to exist. Both films understand that the smallest acts of self-assertion can be revolutionary.

But Nothing happens for a long time. It's contemplative and slow, almost meditative. If you're expecting narrative momentum, you'll lose patience.

A Room of One's Own1991

A beautiful, quiet drama about an 18th-century aristocratic woman who demands the right to think for herself. Like Kristina, it's about female intellect pressing against the walls society builds around it.

But It's contemplative and spare—very little happens on screen. If you're watching for plot momentum or romantic drama, you'll find it too internal.

Marguerite2015

The true story of an aristocratic woman who insisted on becoming a professional opera singer despite having no talent whatsoever. It's about the cost of defying convention and the exhilaration of refusing to be what others want you to be.

But The humiliation and rejection are genuine and sustained. It's not comfortable viewing, and the humour is dark and sometimes cruel.

Atonement2007

A sweeping period piece about desire, class, and the weight of secrets in a gilded world. It has the same lush visual language and the same sense of brilliant people trapped by circumstance and social expectation.

But It's emotionally devastating. The beauty is real, but so is the tragedy. If you want to feel lifted after watching, this won't do it.

Elizabeth1998

Cate Blanchett as a young queen navigating male power brokers who think she's a girl playing dress-up. It's sharper and more nakedly political than The Girl King, but the core conflict—a woman using every weapon she has against men who won't take her seriously—is identical.

But It's violent and sexually explicit in ways that might feel gratuitous. The historical liberties are also pretty wild if you care about getting facts right.

Portrait of a Lady on Fire2019

A queer period drama about desire and creative ambition between two women. It's tender and visually stunning, and it understands the hunger that drives Kristina—the need to be known and to know yourself.

But The pacing is deliberate to the point of immobility for some viewers. Also, if you need clear resolution or conventional narrative structure, this film will disappoint you.

The Last Empress2018

A glossy, angry drama about a young woman forced into marriage with an emperor and determined to make her mark on the Austro-Hungarian court. It has the romance and the court politics, and Elisabeth is just as unconventional and headstrong as Kristina.

But It prioritizes melodrama and passion over nuance. The historical liberties are enormous, and the emotional swings can feel overwrought.

L'Avventura1960

Both films are more interested in the texture of a character's inner life than in what they do. Both understand that intelligence and beauty can be a kind of prison. Both are about wanting something you can't name.

Michelangelo Antonioni's 1960 masterpiece about aimlessness and desire among the aristocracy. It's visual poetry about the void at the heart of privilege, shot in colours that would make The Girl King weep. Kristina's restlessness has the same tone as this film's elegant despair.

But A woman disappears in the first twenty minutes and nobody really seems to care. The plot dissolves. If you want a traditional narrative with stakes and resolution, this isn't it.

Persona1966

Both films are fascinated by the gap between who a woman is and who she's forced to perform being. Both use the female body and face as text to be read. Both understand that identity itself can be a kind of sickness when the world won't let you have one.

Bergman's strangest, most confrontational film: two women, one of whom has stopped speaking, isolated on an island. It's a dissection of identity and performance—exactly what The Girl King is really about. Kristina performed queenship the way Alma performs personhood. Hypnotic and destabilizing.

But It's abstract, demands active interpretation, and offers no comfort. Some people find it pretentious. It's also short on plot and long on psychological intensity, which isn't for everyone.