Club Zero (2024)
Director: Jessica Hausner Run Time: 110 min. Release Year: 2023
Starring: Amir El-Masry, Elsa Zylberstein, Mathieu Demy, Mia Wasikowska, Sidse Babett Knudsen
Country: Austria, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Denmark, Qatar
Language: English, French, Chinese
About the film:
Premiered In Competition at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival.
At an international boarding school, an unassuming, yet rigorous, Miss Novak (Mia Wasikowska) joins the teaching staff to instruct a new class on “conscious eating.” Her impressionable teenage students each have their own reasons for joining the class – to improve fitness, reduce their carbon footprint, or get extra credit.
Although early lectures focus on mindful consumption, Miss Novak’s discussions soon become increasingly disordered and extreme. A suspicious headmistress, concerned parents and the failing health of her students lead everyone to question the inscrutable Miss Novak’s motivations for teaching the class. As a few devoted pupils fall deeper under her cult-like tutelage, they are given a new, even more sinister goal to aspire to – joining the ominous “Club Zero.”
“a sharply-told morality tale, critiquing the relationship vulnerable teenagers have with their bodies, as well as how parents can use their wealth both as weapon and inducement.”
—Shubhra Gupta, The Indian Express
About the filmmaker:
Jessica Hausner is a celebrated writer and director from Austria. Six of her films have been nominated for awards at Cannes Film Festival, including two nominations for the Palme d’Or for her films Little Joe (2019) and Club Zero (2024). Her film Lourdes (2009) won the FIPRESCI Prize at the 2009 Venice Film Festival. Hausner is known for directing films that handle controversial topics head-on, primarily surrounding experiences of girlhood—her latest film, Club Zero (2024), is no exception.
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