**”The Testament of Ann Lee” is a visually ambitious film that uses a dramatic evolution in its cinematic language to chart the journey of the Shaker founder, played by Amanda Seyfried. The first half, depicting her awakening and persecution in 18th-century Manchester, England, is presented as a claustrophobic, ecstatic musical. As co-writer and director Mona Fastvold explained on the Filmmaker Toolkit podcast, these early sequences are shot with grand musical bravado but within intentionally confined spaces, lit by hundreds of candles and filled with smoke, sweat, and the fervor of pressed-together bodies. This visual approach captures the intense, visceral nature of the Shakers’ early worship through song and dance.**
**The film’s aesthetic undergoes a profound transformation in its second half as Ann Lee leads her followers to America in search of religious freedom. The palette shifts from the dark, muted tones of Manchester to embrace the wide-open spaces and natural light of the American landscape (filmed in Hungary and Sweden). As the frame widens and the pacing slows, Fastvold visually communicates a newfound hopefulness and a shift from ecstatic movement to purposeful work. The film illustrates how, within the expansive New World, the Shakers began to find structure, with their devotion manifesting not only in worship but in sacred labor—building, crafting, and creating as acts of prayer. This practice laid the foundation for the iconic Shaker design aesthetic.**
**Fastvold deliberately compressed the historical timeline to connect Ann Lee’s foundational leadership with the mature Shaker design legacy that peaked decades after her death. She sought to show how the radical, gender-equal utopia Lee envisioned gave rise to a timeless design philosophy rooted in beauty, simplicity, and functionality—a principle she notes even influences modern brands like IKEA. For Fastvold, Lee’s spiritual drive to create mirrored her own filmmaking passion, asking, “What is it that drives you to work that hard, to create something that you just want to exist?”**
**This narrative arc is meticulously reflected in the film’s production. As the Shakers’ craft evolves, so does the visual language: production designer Sam Bader created hand-painted set extensions to immerse the audience in pristine Shaker spaces, while Fastvold and cinematographer William Rexer switched to a finer-grain film stock. The ecstatic musical numbers of the first half give way to more refined, structured movements, mirroring the religion’s maturation. The film culminates in a visual environment that is clean, refined, and pristine, embodying the enduring legacy of Shaker thought and design.**
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