With a fiery premiere at TIFF 2025, Hedda finally makes her theatrical debut after spending years on the stage. Inspired by Henrik Ibsen’s play, Writer and Director Nia DaCosta transforms a story already bursting with energy, power, and sex. And at the heart of it, she asks the question: What’s more tragic? To die? Or to be dying to live? 

A passionate and confident Tessa Thompson debuts as Hedda Gabler, a restless housewife who throws a lavish party to reintroduce herself as a ‘domesticated’ Hedda Tesman. In what really is a game of chess, Hedda plots, schemes, and toys with her guests. Some of her toys include her puppy dog husband George Tesman (Tom Bateman), a leery Judge Rolan Brack (Nicholas Pinnock), and Eileen Lovborg, Hedda’s former lover and another professor after the same job as George. Additionally, Hedda receives a new toy when a concerned lover, Thea Clifton (Imogen Poots), comes to watch over her dearest Eileen. 

Eileen–played notably by a former Hedda herself, Nina Hoss–is not only the potential center of Hedda’s game, but a female character, taking us on a different path from Ibsen’s original play. In a messy game of he wants her, she wants her, DaCosta brings a delectable dish of tension, passion, and violence. Opposing forces Hedda, Thea, and Eileen are up against men, each other, and most importantly, themselves, fighting for some semblance of agency in their lives and a way out of societal boxes. 

DaCosta invites us not to Isben’s original late 1800 setting, but to the vibrant mid-century where avant-garde, jazz, art, and experimentation are in the air. Masterfully constructed, her party is decorated with modern art, filled with music and cocaine, and the sounds of longing for freedom and excitement linger. With the quick cuts to gasps, silence, and ticking, we can sense Hedda’s scheming as she moves throughout the house and grounds, playing her game. 

Reminiscent of the mid-century noirs, no character is completely innocent, and the men must ultimately submit to the games the femme fatale is playing, unable to rein in Hedda’s energy. She is dangerous and seductive, and Thompson sensationally forces us to laugh and go along with her game, hungry to see what she will do next. But where Thomspon really shines is when she allows a flicker of vulnerability to come through. Hedda is boxed in, an animal trying to fight its way out of a trap, willing to perhaps cut off a part of herself to try to find a life she deems worth living. 

And where Thompson allows some of Hedda’s cowardice and sadness to fill our hearts with perhaps a small bit of empathy, Nina Hoss presents Eileen with Hedda’s counterpart–a woman who tried to keep all of herself to find happiness, refusing to flee from the battle of being a female academic and lesbian fighting for respect in her community. And where the film is at its peak is when we watch these two women gain and lose power in the situations at play. 

DaCosta ups the stakes in every way. A man fighting for his place in society is now a woman. A housewife in the mid-century is also a woman of color. Every character is fighting for a seat at the table, a place where they feel like they have it all—power, love, respect. And even as this play is meant to end up as a tragedy in the end, DaCosta and Thompson refuse to give the world the satisfaction of our femme fatale’s complete demise. 

Perhaps not without its pacing issues, Hedda is a bolt of energy. DaCosta’s writing and directing are felt in every shot; her earnestness to give women the space to fight for themselves is present. The entire central cast offers nuance and variety, making every interaction filled with tension–we never quite knew when desires were going to be satisfied. 

Hedda, in every sense of the word, is delicious. With a sensational lead and empowering direction from DaCosta, I am excited for everyone to hear about the scandalous party at the Tesman residence. 

Review Courtesy of Sara Ciplickas

Feature Image Courtesy of TIFF