With Karim Aïnouz’s latest film Firebrand having heated up Cannes, the filmmaker’s next project is already taking shape. And it’s looking like quite the doozy with a cast led by Kristen Stewart, Elle Fanning, and Josh O’Connor.
The Match Factory and MUBI have announced that Aïnouz will direct Rosebushpruning, with Stewart, Fanning, and O’Connor leading the cast. The film is a remake of 1965 Italian classic Fists in the Pocket from director Marco Bellocchino, which centered on four siblings, three of which who suffer from severe epilepsy and are unable to work, who live in a villa with their blind mother. One of the siblings determines that the one healthy sibling would be free to live his own life if the mother and other siblings were done away with.
Efthimis Filippou, a frequent collaborator with Yorgos Lanthimos, will pen the script.
“Marco Bellocchio’s astonishing debut, ‘Fists in the Pocket,’ was released over 50 years ago and had a huge impact on Italian cinema and storytelling at the time,” Aïnouz said. “I’m excited to be collaborating with Efthimis Filippou to revisit this iconic work to create a contemporary parable about the death of the traditional patriarchal family — which I hope will be touching and provocative in equal measure. It’s a dream come true to be working with such a dynamic ensemble of actors that I have long admired to bring this explosive adaptation to audiences today.”
With Firebrand a potential awards contender, and now the starry cast of Rosebushpruning, Aïnouz is set to be introduced to a much wider audience.
