Club Zero

Content warning: The film deals with eating disorders.

How little food can a person live on? Since we are constantly connected to various sources of energy like the sun, could we learn to live without eating altogether? Club Zero, presented in this year's Cannes Film Festival competition, is a devilishly sharp satire that strikes like a thousand volts at modern-day issues.

In an English college, St Catherine's at Oxford, a group of students gathers. Under the guidance of their new teacher, they start throwing a wrench into the gears of consumer society in a peculiar but deeply personal way: they minimize their food intake. A breath of fresh air to the established structures is brought by Mia Wasikowska's delicious portrayal of Ms. Novak, whom the young students follow like a cult leader, so devotedly that their parents lose contact with them. As the stunned headmaster witnessing Ms. Novak's methods, we see the Danish top actress Sidse Babette Knudsen.

Timo Kuismin