Ninja Thyberg’s “Pleasure,” a feminist drama about the Los Angeles porn industry, will now be released in the U.S. by Neon after first being acquired by A24 back in February.
Neon will now relaunch the film starting with a screening at the upcoming AFI Fest in Los Angeles on Nov. 13, and will release it in 2022. The film had already made the festival rounds and earned critical acclaim with the plan that A24 would release it in an uncensored version alongside an R-rated version later this year.
“I’m happy and relieved that my debut and life’s work is in the hands of Neon who dare to launch the film with my original vision, raw and uncut, to the American audience,” Thyberg said in a statement.
“Pleasure” is Thyberg’s debut film and takes a look at the L.A. porn industry through the lens of newcomer Bella Cherry (Sofia Kappel), a 19-year-old from Sweden who comes to America with the idea of becoming the next big porn star. Strong, self-confident but naive, Bella believes she can mold the corrupt system to satisfy her needs. But in the end, she must confront whether she’ll pay with her soul for stardom, or not.
TheWrap’s review of the film out of Sundance said “Pleasure” was a feminist workplace parable that just so happened to be set within the world of the porn industry, and that many of its themes should be universal and familiar. It grapples with power dynamics of managers and male-dominated sets, and Thyberg uses nudity not for sexual purposes but to expose such problems.
“We are thrilled to be working with Ninja on this incredible achievement and look forward to releasing it, in the director’s vision, as intended,” Neon said in a statement.
Plattform Produktion and Eliza Jones, Markus Waltå and Erik Hemmendorff produced the film. The film’s executive producers are Pape Boye and Violaine Pichon of Versatile. The co-producers are Leontine Petit and Erik Glijnis of Lemming Film, Peter Possne and Caroline Ljungberg of Film i Väst, Anna Croneman of SVT and Frédéric Fiore and Eric Tavitian of Logical Pictures, as well as Grand Slam Film.
Neon’s Jeff Deutchman negotiated the deal with CAA Media Finance and Pape Boye of Versatile.