Between Stardom and Survival: The Unflinching World of Pleasure
When Swedish filmmaker Ninja Thyberg’s Pleasure premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2021, it not only sparked controversy but it shocked audiences as well. The film, which focuses on the ambition of a young woman looking to break into the adult film industry in Los Angeles, was described as raw, uncompromising, and emotionally fearless. It was not another story about the hollow pursuits of fame or the fantasies of the adult film industry; it was an examination of the complex issues of control, identity, and the high cost of belonging in a desire-driven world.
But the shocking imagery and fearless tone hides another fascinating story about the unknown that lead actress Sofia Kappel stepped into, and the decade-long vision of Thyberg and the changes it brought to everyone involved.
The Journey of Bella Cherry
At the center of Pleasure is Bella Cherry, a 19-year-old from Sweden, who arrives in Los Angeles with a single dream: to become a porn star. Kappel, in her debut role, portrays Bella as neither a victim nor a villain, but as a multifaceted, ambitious woman exploring a complex and harsh industry where fantasy often overshadows the humanity of the people involved.
Initially, Bella approaches her new role with enthusiasm and a desire to demonstrate her capabilities; she is polite, inquisitive, and rather clueless. Nevertheless, she soon shifts her focus from low-rent, low-budget, and amateur photo assignments to high-end productions. It is then that she recognizes the truths that operate behind the camera, within the value systems of the production world. The choices she is offered, as well as the scenes she bodily enacts, will ultimately strip her of her innocence and remake her identity.
The power of the film is that it chooses not to dramatize. It does not condemn or romanticize the choices Bella makes; it simply, without blinking, watches her as she metamorphoses from an outsider to someone who is calloused and wounded by the costs of endurance. The film culminates in a gaze that is not of victory or defeat, but of a far more complex form of attention, one that signals someone who has learned how to perform when no camera is there, and no one is watching.
A Director’s Ten-Year Obsession
The years of research and empathy that Ninja Thyberg dedicated to developing the project Pleasure is what makes it worth the worth the years it took to complete. Thyberg first conceived the idea as a short film in 2013, which won the Canal+ Award at Cannes, and spent the next decade fully developing it and gaining a complete understanding of the adult film industry, attending adult film sets, and talking with performers. She worked within the industry to learn about the complex, and often hidden, structures of the industry.
The industry’s exploitation of women is a reflection of the wider society power structures, and Thyberg clearly wanted to portray that. “Pornography is just a magnified version of how women are treated everywhere else” is a salient quote to support that observation.
Still, Thyberg’s work was remarkable in that she did not document exploitation. Pleasure was honest, refusing to record real porn footage. Thyberg’s care for the actors was manifest in the scenes where actors performed as fictional characters, using the rest of the adult actors in a real role, and built a documentary that blurred fictional and non-fiction.
The persistence Thyberg displayed in making the film was remarkable, especially with the many financiers who built out in the copyright stage, explaining that the film was about emotional distance and that the story would be portrayed physically.
Sofia Kappel’s Dive into the Deep End
Sofia Kappel had no experience in acting or even in theatre. At the age of 20, Kappel was like Bella, curious, but untamed. Still, Thyberg saw something in her “a fearlessness combined with vulnerability” eyes.
Before shooting, Kappel had months of prep work. She had meetings with real adult film stars, shadowed production teams, and studied numerous actor-director dynamics in scene work. But the hardest prep work was psychologcial work, figuring out Bella, the character, while preserving her identity.
After filming Pleasure, Kappel stated “ There were days I went home crying…. But they weren’t tears of regret — they were from realizing how much strength it takes to live in a world like Bella’s,” Defining a world like Bella’s suggests Kappel, even inas the character, came to terms with and accepted the emotionally draining world of Bella.
It was the performance that many critics to redefine Kappel were a formidable, even after her first performance in adult film, the critics stated that the performance was not even about the eroticism. Kappel got multiple awards, many seasoned actors complimented her and stated it was a performance that made many redefine their views.
The Hype, the Fear, and the Fallout
Preceding its release, “Pleasure” became one of the most talked-about films in Europe and the U.S. The discussions were not only about the subject matter of the film but also the questions it raised. The discussions were about its feminism, exploitation, and whether a film about pornography could ever be non-pornographic.
Audiences arrived expecting scandal. What the film provided was discomfort, the kind that would stick around well after the credits rolled. It did not seek to provoke lust, but rather to chastise. It exposed the raw, unvarnished, and unglamorous reality of one’s fame, in contrast to the cinematically polished, rose-tinted narratives of ambition one usually encounters.
Pleasure also sparked discussions around censorship and double standards in the Indian and other conservative markets. Its unflinching honesty was likened to the works of Mira Nair on her film Kama Sutra and Deepa Mehta on Fire, films whose intimacy narratives also examined identity and agency.
The box office returns were modest, but they were of a certain significance. “Pleasure” earned around $1.3 million during its limited release, which was historically significant for an NC-17 film and a film that had no conventional marketing. Its digital release subsequently reclaimed it for film students and feminist critics, which is why it came to be regarded as a modern cult film.
Behind the Lights: What No One Talks About
In shooting Pleasure, the challenge of balancing realism with ethical standards was a constant focus. Each intimate scene, like every scene, required choreography — pre-planned, discussed, and performed under supervision. Kappel and the actual adult actors attached a great deal of trust to the set, which many of the actors described as one of the safest sets they had ever worked on.
Nonetheless, the emotional strain was significant. Thyberg worked with the rule that no one would shoot or view the playback of a scene without consent. After particularly heavy scenes, cast and crew would frequently take breaks to decompress. The director would go as far as organizing group therapy to facilitate the emotional release, which, as a practice, is quite rare in a film production.
One of the film’s most powerful scenes — in which Bella is coerced into performing a humiliating scene — was filmed over the course of two days. Thyberg let the cameras run long after the scripted lines, capturing Kappel’s real emotional struggle as the silence that followed became one of the most haunting moments of the film.
As a side note, the real porn performers like Chris Cock and Revika Anne Reustle, who starred in the film, commended Thyberg for her emotional depiction of their world. The empathy and nuance she presented is palpable on screen.
More Than a Movie — A Mirror
In many respects, Pleasure is not about the adult film industry. It is about ambition and the insatiable desire to be recognized. These sentiments resonate across many creative industries, including mainstream film. Bella Cherry could easily be a character in any other aspirational narrative, perhaps a young actress, a model, or even a YouTuber, straddling the complex divide between one’s true self and the self that is performance.
Sofia Kappel’s transformation in real life is a reflection of the character she plays in Pleasure. Since that film, she has spoken fervently about self-empowerment, the preservation of emotional boundaries, and the recognition of emotional realities. For her part, Ninja Thyberg has moved on to become one of the most lauded filmmakers in Europe, demonstrating that audacious narratives can still find a market amidst commercial cinema.
Beautifully brutal, empathetic yet unflinching, Pleasure remains a cinematic paradox. It confronts the way we perceive women, challenges the way we look at ourselves, the roles we perform, the masks we don, and the silent costs we pay for the desire to be desired.