Wealth, sex, and dysfunction tend to go hand-in-hand on screen, but Karim Aïnouz (“Firebrand,” “The Invisible Life of Eurídice Gusmão”) appears to be pushing that familiar terrain into something far stranger with his latest film.
MUBI has unveiled the first trailer for “Rosebush Pruning,” Aïnouz’s latest feature, which premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival and is heading to U.S. theaters later this year. The film brings together a stacked ensemble cast led by Callum Turner (“Masters of the Air”), Riley Keough (“Daisy Jones & The Six”), Elle Fanning (“A Complete Unknown”), and Jamie Bell (“All of Us Strangers”), alongside Lukas Gage (“The White Lotus”), Elena Anaya (“The Skin I Live In”), Tracy Letts (“Lady Bird”), and Pamela Anderson (“The Last Showgirl”).
Set under the Catalonian sun, the film centers on a wealthy American family living in insulated, hedonistic isolation, where emotional needs are filtered through privilege, performance, and self-delusion. When an outsider enters their orbit, long-buried tensions begin to surface, pushing the family toward rupture.
The project pairs Aïnouz with frequent Yorgos Lanthimos collaborator and co-writer Efthimis Filippou (“The Lobster,” “Killing of a Sacred Deer”), whose scripts tend to tilt toward the absurd, the unsettling, and the darkly comic. That collaboration alone signals something less like a straightforward drama and more like a heightened, off-kilter satire about power, desire, and the rituals of the ultra-wealthy.
Early reactions lean into that tone. Critics have described the film as an “outrageous” and “ferocious” satire, with comparisons that suggest something stylized, excessive, and deliberately confrontational. That tracks with Aïnouz’s recent work, which has increasingly embraced heightened emotion and visual boldness over restraint.
MUBI, which continues to position itself as a home for filmmaker-driven, auteur-led projects, will release “Rosebush Pruning” in the U.S. later this year.
Watch the trailer below.
