In this quiet and emotionally charged Swedish romance, two women from newly blended families fall unexpectedly in love—challenging everything they thought they knew about identity, obligation, and desire. Kyss Mig, also known as With Every Heartbeat, tells a sapphic story that is both tender and devastatingly honest.
Mia (Ruth Vega Fernandez) is a successful architect in Stockholm, engaged to her long-time boyfriend Tim. When her father Lasse announces his engagement to Elisabeth, Mia meets Elisabeth’s daughter, Frida (Liv Mjönes), for the first time at their family’s engagement party.
What begins as a polite introduction between future stepsisters slowly blossoms into something far more intimate. Despite their respective relationships, Mia and Frida find themselves drawn toward each other during a short stay at a lakeside cottage. A kiss ignites a quiet fire—and everything begins to unravel. Torn between duty and desire, appearances and authenticity, the two women must each decide what kind of life they are brave enough to live.
Kiss Me Cast
Charactor
A successful woman who has built a “perfect” life—but is quietly suffocating inside it.
Ruth Vega Fernandez
Ruth Vega Fernandez brings a restrained power to Mia, capturing both her repression and her slow unraveling with grace and honesty.
Confident, mischievous, and emotionally attuned—Frida doesn’t hide what she feels, even when it hurts.
Liv Mjönes
Liv Mjönes plays Frida with joyful emotional availability, making her the necessary counterpoint to Mia’s conflict. Her charm is disarming, her vulnerability real.
Director
Alexandra-Therese Keining
Alexandra-Therese Keining is a Swedish director and screenwriter best known for her sensitive portrayal of LGBTQ+ themes. With Kyss Mig, she delivered one of the most critically acclaimed lesbian dramas of the 2010s, praised for its visual delicacy and emotional realism. Her later works include Girls Lost (2015), another queer-themed film exploring gender identity and teenage transformation. Keining’s films often focus on emotional thresholds—moments when a character must choose whether to stay in a safe lie or leap into uncertainty.
MOVIE HIGHLIGHT
One of the most tender sex scenes in lesbian cinema: filmed without male gaze, full of soft touches and natural pacing.
Masterful use of cello in the soundtrack, subtly reinforcing the tension and longing in key emotional moments.
Bicycle ride scene at night: Mia silently leans against Frida’s back—confused, scared, but safe. Frida smiles, knowing what Mia cannot yet say.
The lakeside kiss: a silent forest, a breeze, a sip of wine—and one of the most organic expressions of queer desire ever captured on screen.
Kiss Me Review
Review
⭐ Story – 4.4/5
At its core, Kyss Mig is about the terror of transformation in adulthood. Beneath the lesbian love story lies a deeper meditation on identity and how difficult it is to change once we’ve been told who we are. The film explores love not as a sudden rebellion but as a slow, disorienting journey toward truth.
⭐ Acting – 4.5/5
Ruth Vega Fernandez delivers a layered, deeply internal performance as Mia—a woman suffocated by expectation. Liv Mjönes, as Frida, shines with warmth, mischief, and emotional directness. Their performances carry the entire film, even through its quietest moments.
⭐ Chemistry – 4.7/5
This is where the film truly excels. The slow glances, gentle touches, and stolen moments feel almost unbearably intimate. The chemistry is soft but electric—a deeply embodied connection that doesn’t rely on dialogue but lingers in every breath and look.
⭐ Production – 4.3/5
Nordic landscapes, golden-hour cinematography, and elegant use of silence elevate the film’s atmosphere. The score—particularly its use of cello—perfectly underscores emotional tension, and the sex scenes are some of the most tenderly filmed in sapphic cinema.
⭐ Ending – 4.2/5
The film’s resolution is both hopeful and grounded. It doesn’t promise perfection, but it offers emotional clarity and agency. It’s not just a happy ending—it’s an earned one.
💬 Our Take
Kyss Mig isn’t just about falling in love with someone unexpected. It’s about what happens when everything you thought was true about your future collapses. Mia isn’t just discovering her sexuality—she’s confronting how much of her life was built on expectations that were never hers to begin with.
The film beautifully captures how adults, too, can be confused, afraid, and messy. It recognizes that love can arrive late, demand change, and still be worth it. It’s about the price of self-discovery—but also its quiet rewards.