Club Zero: A controversial dark comedy about teens who stop eating food

Club Zero might be one of the few films that’s best watched on an empty stomach. Dark in theme but bright in terms of its disorienting colour palette, Jessica Hausner’s distressing, deadpan comedy concerns a group of teens whose social lives revolve around not eating. At school, a teacher, Miss Novak (Mia Wasikowska), encourages a handful of students to consume less and less food. Motivated by health and environmental concerns, the kids follow her advice for conscious eating: they breathe in through the nose and out with the mouth before each bite. But then Miss Novak suggests they take it further by joining Club Zero, a group where members survive by consuming literally no food at all.

Hausner knows her films aren’t for everybody. In 2019, her sci-fi comedy, Little Joe, satirised the antidepressants industry, and centred upon a mother who prioritised her job over her child. Upon meeting the 52-year-old Austrian auteur in late November in a Holborn cafe, I suggest that Club Zero is tackling new taboos in terms of what we eat, when we eat, and, slyly, if we have to eat. “I think Club Zero, in its heart, is also about parenting,” she says. “The parents want what’s best for their children, and they still fail. That’s where the idea came from: as a parent, you fear losing your child, and you’re blind to the dangers.”

I admit to Hausner that I watched the film almost entirely from the perspective of the teens, and felt like the parents were getting in the way of the kids’ wishes. “Huh,” she says. “That’s interesting.” Have responses differed between parents and non-parents? “Reactions are very divided, but not between age groups. Some people understand the film, and how I describe my subjects in a weirdly distanced way. Other people feel too lost. It’s a question of if you can accept the fact that life is chaos, and there’s no right answer.”

While there’s constant discussion in real life over the influence right-wing podcasters and social media stars have over children, in Club Zero it’s a teacher who’s the source of misinformation. In the opening scene, Wasikowska strolls into school in slow motion, somehow looking the same age as when she did in Alice in Wonderland, and could be mistaken for a cool, older student. Unknowable behind the eyes, this is the Wasikowska who did Stoker, not Bergman Island. “There’s a beauty in Mia’s appearance, and also an awkwardness,” says Hausner, who cites In Treatment as a key reason for casting her. “She’s brilliant in roles where she’s good and evil at the same time.”

In writing the screenplay with Géraldine Bajard, Hausner drew inspiration from the Pied Piper of Hamelin, except there’s a twist: the Pied Piper was taking revenge, whereas Miss Novak’s motivations are mysterious. “My characters never have a backstory. We don’t know why the teacher is doing it, but she represents the weird believer who doesn’t see that she’s doing bad when she wants to do good. The children symbolise the idealism of young people. I have lots of teenagers in my films because they find their place in life by imitating other adults. In my films, no one is very original.” She laughs. “I always show my characters from their most unoriginal side.”

Before the shoot, Hausner visited schools to interview children and teachers, and she adds authenticity to the ensemble by casting first-time actors as the main teens. I suggest, though, that actual kids might be more sceptical about the science behind Club Zero. “But cults sell the craziest ideas, and find people who believe it,” says Hausner. “Every guru starts by telling you that you’re weak and sad, and they know how to make it better. You get acquainted with members, rituals, and social interactions. And then the guru introduces the weirder ideas.”

To inform the character of Miss Novak, Hausner spoke to people who have escaped cults. “The interesting result of my research was that you can sell any weird idea. Millions of people believe they will live after they die. They’re called Christians. What’s weirder than that? Other people think they’ll get a virgin when they kill someone. We all believe in the weirdest ideas. This [idea in the film] is one of the smaller crazy ones.”

The point of the film is to understand that we’re all living in a fantasy world. By showing this extremist idea, I wanted to show far this can go. You actually believe something, and it becomes a reality for you

– Jessica Hausner

She adds, “The point of the film is to understand that we’re all living in a fantasy world. By showing this extremist idea, I wanted to show far this can go. You actually believe something, and it becomes a reality for you. But I don’t want to reduce it to that little group. That’s why, in the end, the mother says, ‘Maybe we should stop eating, too, to understand how our children feel.’ It’s like a virus.”

Hausner is in the midst of writing her next feature, Toxic, which will examine the pressure to be successful at work in order to feel worthy as a human being. It will, no doubt, look like a Jessica Hausner movie, which will mean it won’t look like anything else. Since Lovely Rita in 2001, Hausner has toyed with cinematic language in each feature, often to the viewer’s discomfort. In Club Zero, it’s the length of shots (“you feel how long time can be”) and heavy use of zooms that she jokes are “ugly”. She must enjoy the fact her films are so distinct?

“Where to put the camera is one thing,” the director says. “But the other thing that bothers me with mainstream cinema is that it always offers you the psychological explanation. The audience is led emotionally to feel exactly what the film wants. There’s no room for reflection or opinion. There’s no ambivalence. That’s bothering me. I find that to be brainwashing. I find filmmaking these days to be too manipulative.”

Club Zero, then, sticks out amongst new releases as a spiky, thought-provoking film that doesn’t explain itself to audiences, and has a slow-burn effect. Hausner has heard from viewers that they required time to fully process it. “In the hustle of a big festival like Cannes, it’s better to have a film that works immediately,” she says. “I don’t know if I’m able to do that.” When Club Zero competed for the Palme d’Or last year, the reviews were divided. Variety called it “audacious” and “boundary-smashing”; UK critics were less kind.

Although Club Zero was mostly shot in Oxford, it’s taken 18 months after Cannes for it to be released in UK cinemas. “It was difficult to find a distributor,” says Hausner. “There’s this one man, Peter Bradshaw. You can write his name down. I would love for him to read that I think he’s very single-minded. He keeps speaking badly about my films, but totally misunderstanding them. He has a big impact.” In the Guardian, Bradshaw gave two stars to Club Zero. “He compared it to a film I totally dislike called The Wonder. Why was that film made? It’s someone who lies [about fasting], who’s detected to be a liar. That’s really simple, and not at all challenging. If he likes that film over my film, then he doesn’t understand the minimum of what my film wanted to do.”

Hausner’s most positively reviewed film to date is still Lourdes, a dark, French comedy from 2009 about a woman in a wheelchair who may or may not be faking her disability. “Maybe since Lourdes is blaming God, no one feels hurt,” she says. “Not many film critics are very Catholic, so they don’t feel aggressed.” Does she consider Lourdes to be her best film? “No. I would say Lourdes is my film that people understood the best. But what is ‘best’? If the criteria is that people should understand it, and be emotionally involved, then maybe Lourdes is my best film. If the criteria is that a film should be provoking, and have you questioning your beliefs, then maybe Club Zero is my best film.”

Club Zero is out in UK cinemas on December 6.