Atom Egoyan’s “Seven Veils” (2025), starring Amanda Seyfried, is filled with rich subtext. You can pick apart almost any scene or line of dialogue and find its relevance to its overarching themes. The film offers a reenactment of Salome, a classic opera, through the eyes of a theater director, played by Seyfried. However, instead of relying on a singular interpretation of its narrative, it focuses on the nature of reinterpretation and uses it to analyze the interpersonal dynamics at play during the opera production. It builds gradually like an elaborate fable to address how personal traumas affect their understanding of the art. At its end, it takes Seyfriend’s character toward a moment of catharsis, which digs far deeper than what meets the eye.
Spoilers Ahead
Seven Veils (2025) Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis:
“Seven Veils,” written and directed by Atom Egoyan, follows Jeanine, a theater director, who gets assigned to remount her mentor Charles’ opera, Salome. It leads her on a whirlwind and makes her confront her complicated past.
What happens in Amanda Seyfried’s Seven Veils?
Atom Egoyan’s film revolves around Jeanine (Amanda Seyfried), who is thrust into the world of Salome, an Opera production with biblical ties. It is her former mentor, Charles’s, most famous work upon his death. So, as she takes the stage to share her plans, everyone understands that she has big shoes to fill. While the others know Charles’ artistic side, Jeanine knows him more closely after having worked with him for Salome. So, in addition to being a creative influence, he also had a relationship with her outside of work. He becomes a voice in her head that she needs to contend with.
The film explores Jeanine’s anguish through her internal monologue, where she speaks with Charles about the creative direction but receives no response. It reveals more about her past and how it defines her relationship with her life and her art. She is married to Paul (Mark O’Brien) and has a teenage daughter, Lizzie (Maya Misaljevic). However, they are at a crossroads and contemplating a divorce, unbeknownst to Lizzie. Meanwhile, Jeanine has hired Dimitra (Maia Jae Bastidas) to take care of her mother, Margot (Lynne Griffin), who suffers from memory loss. While Jeanine is busy with the Opera, Paul gets into a relationship with Dimitra.
The Woes at Work
Jeanine isn’t happy with Paul being with Dimitra, but she must make peace for the Opera. However, things aren’t great at work either. She lives in the shadows of Charles, whose contribution is used against her, whether intentionally or not, to make her feel less of herself. The cast listens to her insights but does not value them as they would of Charles. She does not even get recognition from the board, either, which publishes Charles’ work but ignores her production notes. She is left with sharing her insight through a tabloid-like podcast. So, there is a constant effort to undermine her input and understanding of the work.
Jeanine tries to assert her position by making some stark, creative changes, much to her cast’s chagrin. Somehow, that takes her back to her memories of Charles and how he interpreted the opera. To one-up her mentor, she recalls how her life inspired his work in the first place. In the past, Jeanine showed Charles some footage from her childhood that served as an inspiration for his production. Some of its scenes were almost an eerie imitation of what she experienced as a child. It brings back her repressed memories of her relationship with her father and makes her contend with the truth of what happened.
Seven Veils (2025) Movie Themes Analyzed
The Art and the Life
Jeanine’s father used to take her on bizarre adventures when she was barely a teenager. He tied her eyes with a cloth, made her walk through the woods or get on a swing, and captured these moments. That handycam footage was a part of Charles’s opera that revealed an admittedly dark tale. It follows a woman who can experience love only when the person she loves is dead. She can kiss his lips only after he is beheaded, and cannot refuse to reciprocate her feelings toward him anymore. Jeanine directs the same story about a year after her father’s death. So, it brings back her memories associated with him.
Jeanine may have realized the nature of her father’s actions earlier in her life, but she finally admits it during the production. However, that is particularly difficult when she is trying to bring the level of passion that Charles brought to his work. She wonders if that was because of the intensity of what she experienced as a kid. So, she tries to reach the same level by using her trauma to portray that of Salome. However, that doesn’t suffice for her to gain respect from her cast and crew. They still treat the production as if it belongs to Charles, and Jeanine is only there as a caretaker, expected to execute what Charles once envisioned.
The Personal and the Professional
As Jeanine struggles to strike a balance between the personal and the professional, others do so too. Clea (Rebecca Liddiard), the prop designer, does not feel fulfilled by her creative output. She works on a bust to present as a severed head for the play, but Jeanine insists they should stick to using a cast of the actor’s face to make it look more lifelike. As it happens, Clea’s partner, Rachel (Vinessa Antoine), must make peace with being an understudy for Ambur (Ambur Braid), who plays Salome and relies on the Opera to earn a living. So, while handling the creative differences, they also need to face the pressures of the inevitable reality.
Clea starts working on a cast of Johann’s (Michael Kupfer-Radecky) face, who plays Jean the Baptist. During the process, Johann makes a move on her. She finishes her cast but needs some time to process her trauma. Eventually, she decides to share footage of Johann harassing her on social media shortly before the Opera commences on the stage. That doesn’t bode well for Beatrice (Lanette Ware) and Nancy (Tara Nicodemo), who are in charge of the operations. They find the situation particularly tricky to salvage. Initially, they persuade Clea against publicizing the footage, only to realize how it can backfire on them.
In exchange for secrecy, Clea expects them to cast Rachel in the play instead of Ambur. However, Rachel refuses that opportunity after realizing how Clea made it happen. She hopes Clea to expose the truth about Johann instead.
Seven Veils (2025) Movie Ending Explained:
Toward the end of “Seven Veils,” Jeanine sees her efforts come to fruition as the opera commences on stage. What might be a few months of rehearsals feels like a lifetime for her. She finally acknowledges the enduring effects of her father’s actions and decides to take a step against them. She asks Dimitri to scratch out her father’s face from a family portrait in her house. In exchange, she accepts Dimitri’s growing relationship with Paul. Margot finds it shocking to see him gone. However, his absence, although figurative, helps her acknowledge Jeanine’s past trauma and apologize for not helping her before.
At the rehearsals, Jeanine starts finding personal connections to Salome’s tragic journey. She sees Ambur as Salome, mirroring a sense of pleasure in pain, while it should have been the opposite. So, she uses her own catharsis to direct Ambur’s journey. She wants Salome to face the truth and find salvation out of the trauma that the love of her life or her father caused her. However, Jeanine disrupts their rehearsals to offer these creative directions, which upsets Johann and the Opera conductor. They think that they already know everything there is to know and do not need her advice.
Does Jeanine come to terms with her trauma?
On the opening day, Jeanine stays in the audience like a distant observer and does not join the cast and crew at the end for the audience’s applause. She quietly admits that Salome will remain Charles’s play no matter how she tries to transform it. This moment reflects her taking charge of their narrative. She admits that Charles’ interpretation of Salome is not her narrative and presumably works toward building her own. Similarly, Clea exposes Johann just before the Opera ends on stage to take charge of her own. So, Johann soon gets replaced by Luke (Douglas Smith), a young and impressionable actor who dreamed of starring in that role.
Luke has a relationship with Jeanine outside of work, but the film doesn’t reveal any more details. It only offers that as a suggestion of what Jeanine might hold dear in her future. Whether she, Luke, or Clea, they all seek a sense of accomplishment and find it toward the end by facing their fears and trying to figure out how they want to lead their lives. The ending does not offer a defining conclusion for Jeanine’s story, nor is it meant as a declaration of the healing power of art. However, it offers an emotionally satisfying conclusion to her tumultuous psychological journey.
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