The Testament of Ann Lee Amanda Seyfried: Reimagining a Forgotten Prophet

We know their ladder-back chairs and flat panel cabinets, but we've all but forgotten the firebrand woman who started it all. Mona Fastvold's latest historical drama, The Testament of Ann Lee, strips away the polished veneer of furniture design to reveal the brutal and fantastical story of Ann Lee. Played by Amanda Seyfried, Lee was a woman who convinced thousands she was the female reincarnation of Christ in the 18th century.

How The Testament of Ann Lee starring Amanda Seyfried blends History and Fiction

According to Entertainment Weekly, Fastvold spent years digging through the archives of the Hancock Shaker Village. Born in Manchester in 1736, Lee’s radical path began with tragedy—the loss of 4 children at a young age. This grief fueled a religious epiphany that led her to preach total abstinence and racial equality, stances that landed her in jail multiple times. In 1774, she fled persecution in England to build a utopian community in upstate New York, which eventually grew to 4,000 followers.

Fastvold admits she's not making a documentary. "It's fiction," she told reporters, explaining that the film uses an unreliable narrator to navigate the gaps in history. While Lee was illiterate and never wrote her own story, the physical evidence of her struggle is real: after she died at age 48, examinations revealed fractures in her skull from various mob beatings. The film balances this brutality with a quasi-musical structure, featuring 12 reimagined hymns from the Shaker archives.

A Modern Score for an Ancient Soul

Collaborating with Oscar-winning composer Daniel Blumberg, Fastvold infused the film with a contemporary sonic edge. Amanda Seyfried performs 3 original songs that bridge the gap between 18th-century worship and modern cinematic storytelling. The result is a portrait that cares less about dry biographical dates and more about the visceral, orgiastic outbursts of faith that defined the Shaker movement.