Satire & Sympathy: 'Rosebush Pruning's Karim Aïnouz & Lukas Gage On The Bleak Satire's Surprising Heart
Rosebush Pruning (2026) is a surprising little melodrama, with a satirical bent that never overshadows the main characters. The film follows a wealthy family spending time on a Spanish beach in the aftermath of their mother's death. When Jack, the eldest son, brings home a new girlfriend, long-simmering tensions spill over in unexpected ways. Starring Callum Turner, Riley Keough, Elle Fanning, Jamie Bell, Lukas Gage, Tracy Letts, and Panela Anderson, Rosebush Pruning isn't an easy watch -- which is exactly what makes it so compelling.
It’s a movie that knows how to poke fun at its high-society leads, without ever losing sight of their deeply flawed humanity. During an interview with JustWatch, Rosebush Pruning director Karim Aïnouz and star Lukas Gage discussed finding sympathetic touches to absurd characters, the films that they love, and the biggest surprises they encountered on set.
Finding Humanity In The Absurd In Rosebush Pruning
Just Watch: This is a tricky cast of characters. What excites you about these kinds of stories and these types of dynamics?
Karim Aïnouz: I think it's the third time I've done a movie where I'm trying to have a central character who is a big patriarch. I think there was a big thing for me at the beginning, to look around us and find inspiration for the draft of the father. This is a family saga with a lot of funky stuff happening. At the time, I think it was such a daily life experience for them. We started imagining this film in 2021. I think, as the years have gone by, that tone of absurdity has become life. You wake up, and you read things, and you think that can't be possible. Then you see who actually did those things... When you think of politicians and powerful figures, the wealthy, it's mostly men. Those were very much the inspiration.
Most of it was really coming from a place of wanting to do a movie that was unlike anything I'd ever done before. It will trigger people to laugh, and it will also make them uncomfortable. You're enjoying what you're watching. There is a sense of darkness in the world we're living in. I wanted to do the opposite. I didn't want to avoid the darkness, but I wanted to do something that actually allows you to breathe within it. That's how it started. The story clearly started with another movie, Fists in the Pocket (1965). But there was a sense of tone with [Rosebush Pruning] that was really exciting. It has a sense of irony, of absurdity, of joy.
Lukas Gage: I think I really am drawn to these kinds of satires and these heightened situations, as an actor or an audience member -- I love a movie or a script that has me laughing one minute and completely unsettled and emotional and confused a minute later. This movie is a very heightened version of life, almost like a dream-like version of it. But I do feel like life is very satirical at times. Sometimes it's just so hilarious and weird and has these unexpected moments. When art can replicate that, it's fun and delicious to dive into. It's weird; these are projects that come to me that I just want to watch. I'm very lucky that I get to be in some of them.
JW: Karim, this film really embraces that satirical touch that we've seen in shows like Succession (2018). It's a family drama that's also a harsh satire about the world. How do you approach that tonal balancing act without leaning too much one way or the other?
Karim: It's almost like mixing something that can't be mixed. For me, that's the challenge. How can I bring humanity to characters that are so unlikable? How can I bring humor to characters that are so self-centered and so unrelatable? I think that was the fun. There's a way of treating this material where you just have the characters say their lines, look at them from far away, and think they're just really crazy. There's another way of doing this, where you mix a sense of psychological realism in with the sense of absurdity. That's what I was looking for.
I knew a lot of people who were watching the movie while it was being edited and were like, 'Oh, I hate all these characters! They're not likable.' But they're unique. Maybe they are not likable, but they are not monsters -- with the exception of the father. He's a monster [Laughter]. Everybody else is a consequence of that. They've been forged by the way that they were treated by their father. I think there is something very human about these characters. It's a movie about a family that was super-privileged, rich, sheltered. They're quite broken and vulnerable. I think the moment you mix those things, something unique sparks.
JW: Lukas, what was it like diving into that dynamic with the rest of the cast on set?
Lukas: The film asks really interesting questions about privilege and wealth and identity. Underneath it, it really is a story about belonging and loneliness. We had the pleasure of having two weeks in Spain just improvising with each other as a family, exploring that and talking about this really funny and dark satire. We're making a commentary about the "eat the rich" theme, but underneath that we find this family that really does love each other and cares about each other. We found a lot of that in our improv prior to shooting the film. What was this family like, especially when the Mom was around? How much love did they all have for one another? That way, when we got to actually film them all and see the dysfunction, there was a place of life before it got so dark.
Favorite Movies And Biggest Surprises
JW: What are some of the movies and shows you think deserve more love?
Karim: It's gotten so much attention already, but Succession -- it is so incredibly fascinating to see how you were almost enchanted or under the spell of these characters that are just so unlikable. I think there is a magic in that which I find fascinating. There was a choreographer and dancer; her name is Florentina Holzinger, I wish she were more appreciated. There's something very fresh in what she's doing. In terms of cinema, I don't know. I prefer not to say because then my colleagues get jealous [Laughter]. I think there is a lot of amazing stuff happening out there. The Substance (2024) is something I really loved. I really liked Pillion (2025). I thought that was really fun. I think there is a lot of innovative stuff going on out there.
Lukas: The things that come to mind right now are The Invite (2026), the movie Olivia Wilde directed. I thought it was incredible. I just watched Pillion; that was incredible too. I'm saying a lot of movies people are fortunately giving a lot of love to, but I also loved Widow's Bay (2026). I'm also going to do a shout-out for a movie I did that I feel like could get a bit more love. How To Blow Up A Pipeline (2023) is a movie that I really love and care about, and I don’t think enough people saw it. It has a niche following, and I love all of them, but I wish more people saw that movie.
JW: What would you say surprised you the most about this experience?
Karim: I think this was the first time I was shooting a scene where I had to stop the shooting because I was laughing at the performances. I was seeing something that felt alive, which was more powerful than what I was trying to capture. The other thing that was really exciting about this movie was staging and prepping it. Some of these scenes have things that you could never think to bring to life, because of just how difficult they are going to be.
There are people jumping from cliffs and wolves eating people- these things that almost exist in your unconscious. It was something almost out of a dream. That was really exciting. It's like when you wake up in the middle of the night with these dreams or nightmares that you wish you could have in a movie. I think, for me, getting to actually put those moments from a dream into a movie was something I'd always wanted to do. I think David Lynch did it. I think there is a lineage of films that go there. I think for me, the joy of capturing something like that, that usually evaporates in time, was really fun.
Lukas: I think every single part of it surprised me. I think this is like the biggest project that I've had, where every preconceived idea I had just completely went out the window the second I got there. Everything that I had rehearsed or planned in my head was gone. As I've gotten to work more and more, the more I've found that overpreparation is the death of being present and spontaneous.
Those ideas should be in your back pocket. But with movies like this, people are going to walk away with completely different reactions and conversations that are so far from where we started while making it. Every day I was constantly being surprised and surprising myself, and it almost felt like everything I'd planned, I did the complete opposite of. That's amazing and beautiful and such a cool experience to have. I have to say how amazing Karim is to give us that space to really explore and never do the cliché thing.
