\n\t\u201cPeople are roses. Families are rosebushes. Rosebushes need pruning.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tWith that ominous metaphor, Ed [Callum Turner<\/a>] introduces us to the super-rich, and sordidly dysfunctional, family at the center of Rosebush Pruning, the new film from acclaimed Brazilian director Karim A\u00efnouz (Firebrand<\/a>, Motel Destino<\/a>). <\/p>\n \n\tThey\u2019re a pretty nasty bunch. Younger siblings Anna [Riley Keough<\/a>] and Robert [Lukas Gage] are incest-curious, borderline psychotics. Their father (played by Tracey Letts) is a blind, soft-spoken, abusive tyrant. Eldest brother Jack [Jamie Bell<\/a>] seems almost normal, though there, too, are signs of deep trauma.<\/p>\n \n\tThe American clan wallows in a life of pointless opulence in a Spanish villa, discussing designer clothes and snarking at servants and each other. But when Jack, the family lynchpin, announces he is moving in with his girlfriend, Martha [Elle Fanning<\/a>], and Ed starts to unravel the truth surrounding the death of their mother [Pamela Anderson<\/a>], things fall apart. The pruning is coming, and it will not be pretty. <\/p>\n \n\tThis modern-day take on Marco Bellocchio<\/a>\u2018s radical 1965 satire Fists in the Pocket, adapted by frequent Yorgos Lanthimos collaborator Efthimis Filippou (Kinds of Kindness, The Lobster), takes its shears to the superrich, going places where Triangle of Sadness or Saltburn<\/a> fear to tread.<\/p>\n \n\tA\u00efnouz spoke to The Hollywood Reporter ahead of Rosebush Pruning\u2018s world premiere in Berlin<\/a>, about the film\u2019s pandemic-era origins, its savage take on privilege and patriarchy, and why he hopes his star-studded satire will \u201cburn down the house.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThis is such an intense and crazy movie. Where did the initial spark come from that exploded into this film?<\/p>\n \n\tIt came from different places. We began writing the script during the pandemic. I was really interested in doing a movie that was contained. And I\u2019ve made many movies about families, but I never really made one about a privileged, white family. I thought it would be interesting to have an ensemble piece taking place mainly in one house and talking about a subject I\u2019d never talked about.<\/p>\n \n\tThe other thing that came to my mind was I\u2019ve made quite a few films with female protagonists, and I thought it would be interesting to shift the angle and talk about masculinity, about the father figure.<\/p>\n \n\tThe producer on the film, Michael Weber, brought up Fists in the Pocket (1965), Marco Bellocchio\u2019s beloved film from the 60s. [About a young man who plots the murders of the members of his privileged, dysfunctional family], and I thought: \u201cWow, that\u2019s a really interesting setup. How do I translate that to today?\u201d I used that film as a blueprint and with a few other inspirations, including Teorema (1968) from [Pier Paolo] Passolini and Killer Joe (2011), the [William] Friedkin film.<\/p>\n \n\tI changed the main character [from Fists in the Pocket]\u00a0to a father, instead of a mother, to allow me to explore these themes of privilege, of patriarchy and of isolation, which is sort of the consequence of this family\u2019s extreme wealth.<\/p>\n \n\tTo give you a bigger context, I had made a movie in the U.K. a couple of years ago, Firebrand (2023) which was about Henry VIII, and I made a film a couple of years ago in Brazil about this toxic, poisonous male character, called Motel Destino (2024). For me, this film is part of that trilogy, of men who are really poisonous, but also very, very normal.<\/p>\n \n\tThe film is also very funny, with a real dark vein of humor, of satire.<\/p>\n \n\tThat came from trying to find how to talk about such a serious topic in a way that would still engage audiences. Everything I\u2019ve told you so far is quite theoretical. The question was how do I make a movie that people will actually come and watch? My encounter with the screenwriter, Efthimis Filippou was really magic. We were introduced by our producer, Michael Weber, and viola!<\/p>\n \n\tIt was [Filippou\u2019s] proposition to do this as satire, something I\u2019ve never done in my life. I thought it was really great to be able to talk about the themes we\u2019re interested in, but from a perspective of humor, of irony and also of absurdity. I think the laughter was perhaps the only way that we can relate to certain themes. So it was coming from different places, but ultimately, I was really interested in looking at privilege, which is something that really haunts me when I think of the world we live in.<\/p>\n \n\tFunny enough, as time went by, the question of the absurd became so present in our daily lives, that it seemed a really great way to look at this, at this story of privilege.<\/p>\n \n\tYeah, the film is crazy and extreme but no more than the headlines we read every day.<\/p>\n \n\tI was trying to not just do a critique of privilege, but also propose new possibilities. There is a cycle of violence, and sometimes violence can only end through violence. So we have the metaphor of pruning the rose bush, where if people are roses, families are rosebushes, and a rosebush needs pruning.<\/p>\n \n\tIt\u2019s funny. Just last night I was finishing the mix, retouching a few things. I won\u2019t spoil anything but I found there\u2019s a real sense of hope in the film as well and that, for me, was important. Because there\u2019s been a series of movies and shows made in the last few years about the super-rich. Think of Parasite, Triangle of Sadness or The White Lotus. There\u2019s almost a genre of films criticizing the accumulation of wealth.<\/p>\n \n\tBut for me, it was really important here to bring the element of humor, of absurdity, and to offer something in the story that would break the cycle. Because this [wealth disparity] has become so naturalized, it\u2019s taken for granted. I was really interested in asking with the film, how do we break the cycle?<\/p>\n \n\tWere there any political figures that inspired the blind, abusive, father character, played by Tracy Letts?<\/p>\n \n\tWell, I probably don\u2019t need to name names. From the start, I was interested in chronicling these male characters that are all over the headlines. It\u2019s almost like an autopsy of these guys, whether they are the president of the United States, the president of Russia or one of these \u00fcber, \u00fcber rich guys that are somehow running the world today. Tracy\u2019s character doesn\u2019t even have a name, he\u2019s just \u201cThe Father.\u201d<\/p>\n