The Testament of Ann Lee (2025) on Netflix
In Manchester, Ann Lee works in a cotton factory with her brother William. She joins the Shaking Quakers, who hold that the Second Coming will be a woman, and marries Abraham.
- Watch on NetflixThis title is not on Netflix right now. Please check back later for updates.
- Watch on Prime
- Watch on NordVPN
- Netflix3.8/5
- IMDb6.4/1010,693 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes88%
Trailer
Plot summary
Ann Lee is born in Manchester in 1736 and works in a cotton factory as a child alongside her younger brother William. After she sees her parents together one night, she links the act to sin, and when she says as much at a meal, her father strikes her hands with a switch. She grows more devout and cooks at an infirmary. With William and their niece Nancy she visits Jane and James Wardley, former Quakers who hold that Jesus will return as a woman and whose worship includes open confession and improvised shouting, dancing and singing. Ann settles into this circle of Shaking Quakers and marries Abraham, another believer. Her unease about sex, present since childhood, stays with her in the marriage.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Testament of Ann Lee (2025)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
SPOILER
For the scenes in which Ann Lee gives birth, director Mona Fastvold used prosthetic vaginas because she wanted the births shown as real, direct and graphic; the film has Lee bear four children who all died in infancy.- The film's closing credits state that the Shaker communities reached a peak population estimated at 6,000 in 1840, and that only two Shakers remained as of July 2025.
- Director Mona Fastvold got the idea for the film after finding a Shaker hymn while finishing her second film, The World to Come (2020); she said the project initially struggled because of "zero interest" from the industry.
