EXCLUSIVE: Karim Aïnouz’s starry drama Rosebush Pruning world premieres in competition at the Berlin Film Festival this month and Deadline can reveal a first clip giving a taste of the satire about the absurdity of the traditional patriarchal family.
Set in an opulent villa underneath the Catalonian sun, Jamie Bell, Calum Turner, Riley Keough and Lukas Gage play American siblings Jack, Ed, Anna and Robert. Together, they wallow in isolation and their inherited fortune, eschewing the demands of their blind father (Tracy Letts), and seeking love and validation through each other and their latest designer clothes.
When Jack (Bell), the eldest brother and family lynchpin, announces he is moving in with his girlfriend, played by Elle Fanning, blood ties are severed and Ed starts to uncover the truth surrounding their mother’s death. Generational lies begin to unravel, and the fabric of this family slowly begins to disintegrate. Elena Anaya and Pamela Anderson also feature in the cast.
The clip, released by Mubi on Thursday, reveals the dynamics between the family as the father asks Anna to describe Jack’s girlfriend in her presence over dinner, even pressing for details of her “bosom”.
The film is a joint production between Mubi, The Match Factory, Kavac Film, Fremantle’s The Apartment, Sur Film, Crybaby and Gold Rush Pictures.
Firebrand director Aïnouz is directing from a script written by long-time Yorgos Lanthimos collaborator Efthimis Filippou (Kinds of Kindness, The Killing of a Sacred Deer, The Lobster), which is inspired by Marco Bellocchio’s 1965 drama Fists in the Pocket.
The adaptation rights were acquired from Bellocchio’s company Kavac Film, with the company’s CEO Simone Gattoni also producing alongside Viola Fügen and Michael Weber for The Match Factory, Annamaria Morelli for The Apartment, Andreas Wentz for Sur Film and Vladimir Zemtsov for Gold Rush Pictures
The Match Factory is also handling worldwide sales.
English (US) ·