Karim Aïnouz's radical reimagining of Bellocchio's 'I pugni in tasca' premieres at Berlinale

Karim Aïnouz's 'Rosebush Pruning' premiered in competition at the 2026 Berlinale, offering a radical reinterpretation of Marco Bellocchio's 1965 classic 'I pugni in tasca'. Rather than a simple remake, Aïnouz shifts the film's symbolic axis from the mother to the father as the pathological center of the family, reflecting a patriarchal society. The film is set in Catalonia, where an immensely wealthy American family lives in elegant apathy. The mother, played by Pamela Anderson, is presumed dead; the blind father, portrayed by Tracy Letts, exerts obsessive control over his children: Jack (Jamie Bell), Ed (Callum Turner), Anna (Riley Keough), and Robert (Lukas Gage). Jack, the devoted eldest son, begins to challenge paternal authority after falling in love with Martha (Elle Fanning). The mother's return alive with a Spanish companion (Elena Anaya) further disrupts the family's hypocrisy. The screenplay is by Efthimis Filippou, known for 'The Lobster' and 'Kind of Kindness'. Aïnouz described being struck by the rebellious charge of Bellocchio's original, likening it to a Grimm fairy tale on acid. The film transforms individual rebellion into a political act against familial authority as a system of power, contrasting visual elegance with moral decay.