A scientist who works in the lab that develops new plant species has created a flower that can make people happy. However, the miraculous creature is not as inoffensive as in seems. Jessica Hausner’s drama of paradoxes is a powerful combination of a body-snatchers thriller and an intellectual riddle.
Alice is a scientist who develops new plants. Her latest creation, a flower named Little Joe, emits a scent that makes human bodies produce dopamine, also known as “the pleasure chemical.” Little Joe makes people around it feel happy, calm and confident. But there’s a catch: whoever owns Little Joe starts caring for it as if it were their baby, and the plant’s effect on their health is in fact rather ambiguous.
The first English-language feature by Jessica Hausner (Lourdes, Amour Fou) cleverly pretends to be a great thriller (or a great episode of Black Mirror), in fact the Austrian intellectual director has redefined the conventions of the genre and distanced herself from it. The film’s Hitchcockian tension disguises a meditation on humans who run away from their feelings and towards a standard idea of “happiness” imposed by the society, instead of trying to figure out what is going on in their lives. Little Joe’s Emily Beecham won the best actress award at the 72nd Cannes Film Festival.
The film screening is organized together with KinoPoisk.
Little Joe
Director: Jessica Hausner
Austria, UK, Germany, 2019. 105 min. 18+
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